spirit

I’ve always liked photography with a lo-fi look and feel. Lo-fi, lomography, toy camera photography – call it what you will. It has a certain funkiness, a kind of soul and guts to it that’s the antithesis of the almost sterile perfection of most digital photography. It has character.

If I was to return to film photography I think I’d opt for something like a Holga. It’s not gonna happen, but still… I use my phone these days. A basic iPhone 13 – none of the unnecessary pro or pro max shit. The basic model suits me just fine and it slides nicely into my pocket. I don’t use the native camera, I use a couple of other b/w apps with tap screen shutters. The freedom and flexibility and spontaneity they give me is priceless. A few tweaks in Snapseed will give me as lo-fi a look as I want. Or not. I can blow out the contrast and exposure, I can shoot at any angle, I can add grain (which I usually do) and blur when I want. All with a few moves with my fingertip. I generally find that if I have to spend more than about two minutes adjusting an image that shot failed and I shitcan it. That pretty well sums up my equipment and method. Enough said.

What’s most important to me is to convey a sense of the mystery and underlying spirit of the desert. It’s a rough-edged powerful place. A woozy, grainy, sun-blasted look suits it – an almost mirage like feel, a vibe like you’ve been out in the desert sun too long. That’s what it’s like out here. It’s a rough grainy place where the sun dominates. To my mind a rough grainy lo-fi look gets that across much stronger than a clinical, technically perfect photo can even come close to.