ashley is a small town, mid-western girl hailing from alton, il (nowhere, usa).
starting with a birthday present from an ex-boyfriend, my journey into film photography began. i asked for a simple manual 35mm film camera, and received a minolta srt 101. i didn't even use it immediately. i actually didn't use it for maybe 2 yrs from the point i received it. i believe i was sad one day, and just decided to pick up the camera and go outside and shoot the beautiful day.
my first prints were amazing, i'll never forget it. i had developed my first roll at wolf/ritz camera on matte paper with a white border. the anticipation was ridiculous! they looked like post cards! i mailed some of those original photos to family with a personal message referring to that photo's significance. that whole experience is one i aim to chase as long as i'm interested in photography. the anticipation of seeing what the lense interpreted from your eye to the film is the reason i shoot film. without it, i could just shoot digital, and do some altering to create some anticipation. there's nothing like natural beauty to me, and that's why i'm obsessed with film photography at the moment.
i am not formally trained in photography. i am just a lover of art and culture, and am in the process of documenting life as i see it. i prefer to refer to myself as a "documentor" since i prefer candid shots of peoples' interactions and youth and ethnic culture. i was always the girl on field trips with the camera. never obsessed with taking pictures of my self, but of the culture going on around me.
to this day i am still uncomfortable in from of the camera. if its not a candid shot, i will forever have one eye closed in the pic.
;)
my name is denys & i am a simple girl born and raised in the southern parts of atlanta, georgia. at least simple is what i'd like to believe, but my mind would never allow me to be.
my father introduced my siblings to film photography probably on the day we were born. i borrowed a camera from his stash and i reintroduced myself in the spring of 2008. i have been completely obsessed ever since. film photography takes an extreme amount of patience, and i just so happened to be made up of nothing but.
being an art director was one of the most important jobs that i wanted to obtain while attending school for fashion. what better profession to have than to create dream sequences and bring them into reality through your own art? i guess that is what i'm trying to adopt now somehow with my photography. i'm a dreamer, and just as moody and fickle as the weather wants to be. i've finally come to terms with the fact that, that is what makes me, me. and if i'm going to be those things, i may as well illustrate them while i'm at it. so if i happen upon something certain from a reverie, or the mood i'm in presents itself: i pull out my camera [that i tote everywhere i go] hit the shutter, and hide it in my box until its time to develop.
it is a beautiful thing.. this art. to capture such private thoughts that one would find so sacred and dear.. and to share them so willingly with the world.
xooxo
I'm Hadiyah, a small-town debutante with big city dreams from East Palo Alto, CA. Don't feel ashamed if you've never heard of that place, most haven't.
I'm not sure if my mother realizes this or not but for quite sometime growing up, I received a camera every year on my birthday. They were never really cameras of quality as I come from meager beginnings but they were cameras nonetheless. Fully-functioning soul takers, memory catchers, history preservers all made possible by AA batteries and 35mm film. With every camera came two fascinations: 1) peering into the world via the viewfinder to "see what I can keep" and; 2) the actual printed picture. Of course, by the time I hit my teenage years the digital age and internet had pretty much taken over my life and these two fascinations eventually subsided and faded away, much like the analog medium.
Fast-forward to adulthood and here I am staring at a Minolta SRT-101, a few Polaroid's, a Canon Sureshot 120, a Holga and a growing list of other vintage 35mm and medium format cameras while writing this bio. How did this happen? Well, I was rather reluctant to hop on the analog photography band wagon as it had seemed to become a trend amongst people my age. But, for my undergraduate senior thesis I studied, planned and worked with a photographer and her non-profit organization (which was centered around the art of photography). It wasn't soon before long that I found myself submerged in the art of photography and, in a sense, a desire to create art of my own.
I had expressed this interest to the woman I was working with during one of our weekly meetings and she gave me one of her vintage Minolta SRT-101's to "play with for awhile". Well, I did just that. During this "trial" period I found that I enjoyed risque subjects and arranging people like harmonies around the click of the shutter. The end results received an overwhelming response. When the idea for Analog Girls came up, I had no reason not to share my musings. I do hope you enjoy.
paz.