What
is Filmwasters.com?
This site is dedicated to showcasing and promoting the creative side of film-based photography. It is a 100% independent operation designed, managed and financed by 5 friends and it is our likes, dislikes, enthusiasms, prejudices, limitations and energy that will inform its make-up.
Filmwasters.com is not about advertising, sponsorship, hit rates, print
sales or any of that stuff. We just wanted somewhere of our
own on the Internet to hang out and collaborate with friends and meet other like-minded
photographers.
The original idea behind the site was to create a showcase for our own work,
but to prevent it from becoming purely a vanity project we decided to open it
up to friends and others whose work excites us so that they could contribute
guest galleries or
join in the regular collaboration projects that we run. These contributions
along with our own output in the Grabs and Portfolios sections ensure that the
gallery content at Filmwasters is constantly changing.
The Blog is here because we wanted somewhere to post the occasional tech
review, highlight interesting news snippets, gallery/exhibition info and link
to all the cool stuff that we find online.
Finally, we included a forum because the 5 of us first 'met' online at the
toycamera.com forum and we enjoy the interaction, creative buzz and community
spirit that a good forum provides. It also allows people to display individual
images or small groups of images in an ad hoc fashion through links in posts.
So,
Filmwasters.com is an amalgamation of articles, online galleries, individual showcase and a forum dedicated to the use of film in photography. It aims to stress the exploration of creativity through film-based photography rather than the
'wheres', 'whys' and 'how-exactlies'; these can be answered in phenomenal detail on so many other photographic web resources. Filmwasters is not camera-type specific - glass, plastic and lensless are all welcome here.
Origins
Filmwasters.com was borne out of a conversation between five disparate individuals over coffee and
Cornish pasties in London, Summer 2005. Having talked previously from our 3
corners of the world in various electronic forms, we finally met face-to-face
and the talking started for real.
Common ground was film, a mutual respect for each others' photography, shared ideas and aspirations, cameras
(LOTS of cameras) and other photographers. Without knowing at the time, we laid down the ground work for what was to become Filmwasters.com.
The Filmwasters
We are a diverse bunch of five photography enthusiasts from opposing ends of the globe. One in Tokyo, one in Los Angeles and three from England. Although our collective styles could not be more different, we all have an overriding and all-consuming passion for film-based photographic art.
Damion lives and works in Birmingham, England, He likes his music loud & his head shaved mainly to hide the fact he is going deaf and losing his hair - despite this he is still regarded as something of a catch, although only by his wife who has invested too much time and energy in him to admit otherwise. Photography is a very creative outlet for Damion, the technicalities of which mostly remain a mystery; he would like to keep it that way.
Ed lives in London with two beautiful women, 9 guitars and 50+ cameras. The camera collection fluctuates constantly, but the women and the guitars are here to stay. While Ed has a passion for photography, it's something he's not alwasys too good at talking about.
Leon likes the fine and considered approach to picture taking and print making. He treads dangerously close to the line of over-technicality, while still being a bit of a hippy, which is no mean feat in anyone's book. He nests in the rural depths of East Kent and spends much of his time in the dark.
Susan B. is a professional photographer with an obsession for the fine art of blur. Her favourite colours are black and white. Her favourite smell is fixer. She can't cook or sew, but can modify a mean plastic camera. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her super-dog-nose-model, Blue.
Skorj is a first-dan haikyo otaku, lives in Tokyo, and spends too much time exploring the non-traditional Japan. His work has been used in magazines & newspapers, for internet advertising, and in TV and DVD productions.