[Interview-Tuesday] Joe Harper

Today we’re interviewing Joe Harper. As always, you are still welcome to send us your own answers to the questions.

Can you introduce yourself in a few words?

My name is Joe Harper. I am an amateur photographer based in Atlanta, GA a city in the Southeastern part of the United States. I shoot film because it lets me use the cameras that I love and it captures the world the way I see it. I love travel and blending travel and photograph is what I would consider my life’s great ambition

Why do you like shooting film?

It all started when my mom gave me my great grandfather’s camera, an old box Brownie. from then on Digital became a side thing for me. Shooting a picture, developing the film by hand. looking at a negative on my light table… it is so connected. much more so than a simple USB cord.

Do you have a favorite camera and/or film?

I love my Hasselblad 500 C/M when it comes to quality i have never had the pleasure of holding and or using it’s equal in quality/size. however i have to say that i really like my Kodak Retina IIa from 1952.

As for fim favorites. in the Hasselblad i love Efke 25. Souped in Rodinal it is really smooth and beautiful. i also use a lot of Kodak Ektar 100. I find it has smooth grain and really nice color.

For 35mm i like Ilford HP5+ 400 in B&W and Kodak Ektar 100 in color.

What is your best analog photo till now and a little explanation about it?

Best is a pretty subjective question but i am more than happy to share with you my favorite picture i have ever taken with a camera!

This shot was taken in a small village on the eastern side of Iceland last year. i shot it with my Hasselblad and a 50mm lens. the city was called Seyðisfjörður and is the most tranquil and beautiful place i have ever been in my life. i burned through about 10 rolls of film that day and could have kept going for sure. we drove all the way to the end of the fjord and took a few shots of the angry Norwegian sea. it was amazing. 20 miles from here the scene was more like this one.

Nothing like it for a landscape photographer. nothing i have found yet anyway. i guess the fun part of travel and photography is that you can never say never.

What’s your vision on the future of film photography?

As a person that travels wherever his job, or vacation takes him with at least 2 film cameras and when my wife is with me she carries 2 as well (Yashica MAT 124, and a Minolta SRT-101) i am committed to film in a big way. i am committed to the future of film and as a person that started in Digital and migrated to medium format film i am not alone. i dont think that digital is not the future, on the contrary it is THE future. but in my opinion film has a market, albiet vastly smaller than it once was, in the Artist and Pro market. i shoot film for the quality, feel, nostalgia, and the way it makes me feel connected to the shot. i can only shoot about 1 frame every 3-5 seconds with my camera verses my canon 40D that takes 6.5/second. if i want the shot with film i must be good not lucky. and that appeals to me personally.

I look forward to the future with a freezer full of film and a 10 lbs. chunk of metal and glass hanging off my tripod. im not alone but even if i was that would be fine with me. to be hones all that matters to me is the picture. weather you shoot Leica, Hasselblad, Canon, Sony, Nikon, or whatever let the gear become transparent it is just a tool. go for the image and you will be happy you did long after they stop making batteries for that old fashioned 5D mkII 10 years from now. >:)

Joe Harper