Portrait as an Ashtray: Canon F1 + Lomo 800
Written and Photographed by Jeremy Lachance
Addiction makes us forget our genuine identity, this feeling makes us lose control of our impulses. Through this series of portraits I am trying to explore how addiction fits into a complex and multifaceted concept of identity.
Artist
My name is Jeremy Lachance and I am a film photographer from Canada. Even though I am new to the medium, I have previously experimented a lot in the field of surf photography. While trying to distinguish myself in the action sports world, I played a lot with the materiality of film photography which inspired me to do this unrelated project titled Portrait as an Ashtray. The project was shot in Hochelaga, a neighborhood of Montreal. In this photo series, I shot a few friends, a stranger and a self-portrait. To see more of my work, feel free to check out my Instagram.
Method and Process
The materiality of film photography is one of the factors that makes the medium so appealing. One of the ways to play with it is to destroy the film emulsion. Some use liquid, fire, scissors etc. Any way to alternate the emulsion can create interesting results. In the project, I am destroy the film by burning the emulsion with a cigarette. Heating the emulsion while trying not to completely burn the negative is a delicate process. Unfortunately, I accidentally lost a few frames by holding the cigarette on the emulsion for too long, resulting in burning holes through the negatives.
Gear and Film Stock
It’s always interesting to talk about gear in film photography, as most of the cameras are vintage and dated. For this particular project I chose 35mm format as I wanted the burned surface to cover the whole face of the subject, in medium format it would have been harder to achieve. The project was shot on a beat up Canon F1 and a classic Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens.
The project was at first shot in a very dark area, so Lomography 800, a color negative film, was my film stock of choice. It was shot at box speed. The film has a cinematic look due to the bright and lightly saturated color that makes the photos appear more surrealistic. The grain is delightful for such a high ISO color film. It is, in my opinion, a great alternative to other high iso film like Portra 800 which, not only costs way more, but does not have the same strong identity that Lomography 800 has.
Project Thesis
Smokers get spammed by anti-tobacco adds. When you open a pack of cigarettes, inside you find a whole book to read about how toxic smoking is. School teaches us the same and so do numerous government campaigns.
People identify through a set of dependences or independences; smoker, non-smoker, occasional, weekend smoker etc. But there is something in addiction that makes us forget our genuine identity, this feeling makes us lose control of our impulses. Through this series of portraits I am trying to explore how addiction fits into a complex and multifaceted concept of identity.
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