Written and Photographed by Carl Fehres with Model R’Bonney Nola

Artist

My name is Carl and I’m a portrait / fine art film photographer based in Houston, Texas.  I primarily shoot with a Leica M6, Pentax 67II and Mamiya RZ67 using a variety of film stocks including Portra 400, Portra 800, TMax400 and Tri-X 400.  I always bring along my Polaroid Land 195 with a box of FP100c. To see more of my work, check out my Website. You can find more from this set and others in Marfa on either of my IG accounts @CarlFehres + @ShotOnPolaroid.

Polaroid Addiction

A few years ago I was introduced to pull-apart Polaroid magic and the addiction hit me instantly. One of the things I love and hate about film is having to wait to see the results.  Now with the Polaroid, I can take a few select photos during a session and instantly see and share the results.  The colors and contrast you get from Fuji FP100C are amazing in the right light.  I also use the Polaroid to test lighting setups when I occasionally use studio lighting.

The Polaroid Land 195 camera is an incredible conversation starter.  Pulling it out of the bag and extending the bellows always gets an interesting reaction.  I will often have the model pull the film from the backing and the reaction is usually one of awe!  The feeling of actually holding a Polaroid photograph in your hand versus looking at an image on the back of some digital screen is way more natural.

This set of photos was taken an hour north of Marfa just off the highway where Prada Marfa is.  The clouds were out, rain started and stopped all afternoon. R’Bonney and I just hopped in the car and drove looking for interesting locations.  We hadn’t found anything really inspiring and decided to turn around.  Heading over the bridge to turn back we saw this incredible scene with beautiful mountains in the background, cacti and desert plants on both sides of a dirt road leading into the distance.  The sky was overcast just after a brief rainfall and the light was absolutely spectacular.  We spent an hour here shooting various sets.  This is a set of FP100c Polaroids of R’Bonney taken on a road to nowhere on a cool West Texas rainy day.

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