Remember Klick? Are they still on the go? Turns out they are, only now owned by Max Speilmann which is owned in turn by Timpson which in turn, it appears, is about to be
sucked into the gargantuan folds of Tesco. Such is the wonderful world of choice promised by free market capitalism.
Stuffed away in a box in the garage I found a few old rolls of Klick's own brand 35mm film which I'm now putting through the
Rollei 35B. Although I sent my negs away to
Peak Imaging for processing and printing (good, speedy service by the way) the whole process took me back to when I first started and would get my films developed on the high street. Having to pay for each roll of film then pay for it to be processed meant that it cost far more to take a picture back then than it does today. Not having much money, this is probably how I ended up developing my painfully slow shooting habit. A habit, which despite having shot on digital for the last ten years, I'm just beginning to break, or rather evolve.
I don't consider my style to be slow in the way that fine art photographers spend hours working on every minute visual and technical detail. I spend my time looking for emotional connections to my subject matter. The actual taking of the photograph I often do in a very fast photojournalistic manner - shoot and move on. But I like to spend time around the people or places I'm photographing, either physically or mentally. Then once I've ever so slowly found that emotional resonance, snap and the photo's done.
