Full Frame Pictures and People

My first photography class was Black and White 1 at the Academy of Art College San Francisco. The teacher, Mike, required us to print full frame which means, no cropping of negatives for final prints. He wanted us to get used to seeing everything we chose to put in the frame. I always felt comfortable this way. The decision was made for me: I either had the shot, or I didn’t. Decades later, I am still most comfortable shooting with a fixed focus lens (no zooming) and printing full frame. Even with the advent of a digital workflow, I crop as little as possible. I can tell it’s not the original and it feels strange.

Since I began shooting, I’ve been drawn to people. My first photography project for Mike was of the students at a school I volunteered and then in my 4x5 camera class, my final project was a portrait series. A 4x5 camera, with its bellows lens and backwards and flipped image on the ground glass is geared towards scenery and architecture, not people. Nevertheless, I was determined to capture faces with it instead. When the image was perfectly exposed, and the subject still, the range of greys in the film grain is memorising.

For the past eight years I have moved to the quick and forgiving iPhone. Now that I’ve brought my film cameras back to life, I have been most interested in landscapes. Yet, as I edit my images, I still am drawn to the faces of those around me.

Here are a few of people-centric images I’ve taken.