Last week I was supposed to be in New York City to attend, and tangentially participating in, the grand opening celebration of Brooklyn Film Camera’s first curated group show called Sacred Implications. They’ve offered the gallery walls of their wonderful store in the past year for individual solo shows. But this is their first group show.
One of my favorite of their shows was the wonderful work of @portroids. Seeing such a large collection of what I can only imagine is a fraction of the thousands of photos he’s taken during the past twenty years, was amazing. Many of his shots were on Spectra film, which I hadn’t seen in more than a decade.
This group show was built on the theme of what each photographer considered ephemeral. Per BFC, more than 300 photographers submitted work for consideration, including me. From that number, BFC trimmed that list down to 19 primary participants, whose work is hung, and as many as 300 secondary participants were included in a digital slide show. My photos were not included as a primary participant, but they did include my Polaroids in the slide show.
To be honest, I struggled to assemble a submission that reflected the theme, so I wasn’t surprised my photos didn’t make the primary cut. I was hoping to spend a week exploring the theme with newly shot photos. Unfortunately, the week I had available was non-stop rain. As I’ve said in previous posts, I’m not a studio photographer, I find my subjects on the street. A little rain can be a mild annoyance or better yet an opportunity. But my neighborhood floods with even the slightest bit of moisture. And that was the week Los Angeles received twelve inches of rain.
Instead of new photos, I pulled several Polaroid images I felt honored the theme, but in all seriousness, that was a bit of a stretch. I selected five images I’ve taken from the same spot over a four year time span. The shadow in the images stays basically the same, but the background building goes through a number of tranformations as the structure has evolved over time. My idea was that although time seems ephemeral, it is actually concrete and definitive. But those elements of our world that seem permanent, are actually ephemeral.
As I mentioned at the top, I was supposed to be at the opening, but an emergency room visit and a medical issue prevented travel to New York. And, since I won’t be able to get to NYC before the end of the show, I will unfortunately miss it. I’ve read good reviews – like this one – LINK.
I’ve been a Brooklyn Film Camera fan for quite some time. Once I purchased ten packs of expired Fuji peal-apart film and several packs failed completely, Kyle was very proactive in solving the problem. He didn’t need to do that. Expired film is a gamble. I made my purchase knowing failure was a possibility. Expired film is buyer beware. But I believe Kyle really loves the film community. It’s not just a business for him. It really seems like it’s a passion. I think he was more concerned about the film failure than I was.
Even though my photos didn’t make the primary cut Kyle and his curators Callan Thomas and Carly McGoldrick, selected photos that’ll do the most to advance analog photography. I have to admire that. So should the film photography community at large.
I wish I could have attended the opening and seen the show. If you’re in the New York City area, you should check it out. Or just support Brooklyn Film Camera – LINK