Written and Photographed by Paul Johnson. Modeling by Darcey Harwood!

Shooting with my Pentax MZ-S, the intention was to experiment with a variety of lights, prisms, and mirrors. Inspiration was derived from the Italo-disco era neon lights, vintage colors, retro, and fashion scenes.

Artist

My name is Paul Johnson and I’m a London-based photographer. Primarily, I work in filmmaking but wanted to dabble in the world of photography as it goes hand in hand naturally. You can find more work on my Instagram and Vimeo! I also co-own a production agency called Say Goodnight Films.

Gear and Film Stock

This session was shot on expired film on a Pentax MZ-S. Shooting with Croatian-made expired Efke film, efke KB 50 B&W, I knew I was running a risk from the start. After processing the rolls of film, a roll of color film was lost but managed to salvage a roll of the BNW by pushing it to 4. Only 2 images survived from the color roll. The results were very grainy and contrasty, though, the images turned out to be my best so far. Especially for this scene, I think it worked to our advantage! I also took a few polaroid photos using my Impossible I-1 which show the colors of the scene.

Nocturnal Rose

Having worked with Darcey before on a music video, God On My Right 'Dark', we managed to set up a photo session together a few weeks ago. Shooting with my Pentax MZ-S, the intention was to experiment with a variety of lights, prisms, and mirrors. Inspiration was derived from the Italo-disco era neon lights, vintage colors, retro, and fashion scenes. We wanted this to be a casual shoot with a black backdrop and create an empty world where she was the main focus, accompanied by a few props.

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