Egypt on Film.
Before leaving on a trip to Egypt in August of 2019, I made the decision to leave behind my digital camera and bring only my 35mm Leica M3 with me. I had a backpack with a few changes of clothes, ten rolls of film, two weeks, and no plans for where I was heading. Leaving my digital gear behind on a trip was something I had wanted to do for quite a long time, however I had always talked myself out of it - there is a feeling of safety in taking a picture and knowing that it is there. It is nice to be able to send photos to family during a trip, post updates for friends, and have the general feeling of security in knowing the memories of the trip are saved. I think my largest hesitation came down to me not fully trusting myself. I had been using the M3 for around four years at this point, and although I had taken some photos I loved with it, I did not have full faith in myself that I could always be there to get the perfect photo. There is no light meter, no autofocus, no visual representation of depth of field - no help really of any kind. With my digital tools, I can pull out my camera and take a quick photo and know that it will be properly exposed, or close, and in focus. It took me quite a long time to get over those fears and to internalize what it really was that I wanted out of my photography. Small as it may seem, the decision to head off to Egypt with only my film camera and some rolls of black and white film was a big leap of faith, and one of the most rewarding lessons I have had in my photography journey.
Shooting on film has the incredible benefit of staying out of the way of a moment and letting me continue to live the experience at hand. No matter what I have tried with digital - hiding screens, changing shutter sounds, or using manual lenses, there is always a feeling of separation from the moment I am living and the one I am photographic when I introduce an electronic tool into the mix. I understand that is a very person feeling, but I do think there is something universal about how much taking a photo on film takes the backseat to the moment at hand. Perhaps it is the scarcity of only having a set amount of frames to shoot, so I choose to take one picture instead of five. Perhaps it is the mechanical nature of not having any power switches to turn on or waits as the camera processes and saves the image. Perhaps it is the absence of temptation to look at the image after taking it. Whatever it is, all of these moments, the courtyard of a mosque in Cairo, the docks along the Nile in Aswan, a shoe vendor in Alexandria, I was able to live and experience fully. Taking a picture felt friction-less and not distracting. It felt invisible and allowed me to rest in the enjoyment of each moment without taking me to a place of worrying about composition, whether the lighting was right or not, and whether I should take another picture just to be sure I got the shot.
All of the images on this trip were shot on Tri-X 400. My favorite film stock, and one of Kodak's oldest high speed black and white films. Dating back to the 1940s, Tri-X has a punchy, contrast heavy render with a bold but fine grain structure. I have always loved the contrast of Tri-X and the texture that it gives to an image more than some other, better balanced film stocks. The inky blacks hide so much detail that it adds a layer of mystery and obscurity to photos - providing more room for imagination and interpretation.
'There is nothing worse than a sharp photo of a fuzzy concept' - Ansel Adams
I think you can interpret this quote a few different ways, but for me, the core idea here is that concept and communication is the heart of any photo. If there is no emotion, or story, the photo falls flat. The two photos above are not great photos by any technical means. They are both blurry. One leans towards under-exposed and the other towards over-exposed. However, both of them communicate a feeling and the essence of the place I was in and trying to capture. To flip the quote around a little bit, maybe there is nothing better than a blurry photo of a sharp concept. Both of these photos perfectly represent where I was, and when I look back at them, I am transported back into those moments. The taxi ride was chaotic by western standards. Weaving across multiple 'lanes', dodging people, motorcycles, and vendors on the road. Speed limits and road rules turned to mere suggestions as the taxi sped through the night streets of Alexandria. The blurriness, the darkness of the photo captures that feeling. The second photo is taken from the deck of a small felucca sailing on the Nile. Night falling across the water, the lights of Aswan shining in the distance as the boat rocked back and forth, pushed by the feeble wind across a stale summer night. The movement in the photo is a direct reflection of the movement in the moment it was taken. Both of these photos would look out of place enlarged and framed in a living room, but both communicate the experience of being in those moments better than almost any other photo I have taken. That is the biggest lesson I would end up taking away from this experiment on 35mm in Egypt - capturing emotion, truly capturing a moment does not mean having a perfect photograph.
The two photos above are some of my favorites from the trip despite both of them not really being ideal photos. The first was taken at Luxor Temple minutes before it closed. I had arrived in the city of Luxor quite late in the day and decided to stop in to see the temple as night fell. However, shooting a 400 speed film meant that I needed to shoot with my lens wide open at f1.5. That coupled with a 1/25 shutter speed did not give me much confidence I would get the image sharp. However, all of these things put together gave me a photo that was dark, bold, and reminds me of the immense mystery of this temple. The photo ranges from completely underexposed to blown out in the highlights, but what it lacks in small details it gives back in story. This place is full of hidden secrets, things I cannot se or understand, and yet the person in the center of frame acts as a stand in for myself - walking towards something great and shrouded, a curious observer.
The second photo is from one of the nightly felucca rides down the Nile I took while staying in Aswan. This photo, framed close and edging on abstract in its composition, captures the feeling of being on that boat for me than any photo of the actual boat ever could. I remember sitting on the edge, letting my feet dip in and out of the Nile as the boat rocked up and down. The water splashing violently against the wood as the boat sped through the wind while the river behind seemed as still as glass. This image captures that, the movement, the location, the idea, all while being so intensely focused on a foot. It captures what I love about photography - how there is always a new and different way to tell a story, a new perspective.
What started as a leap of faith and a desire to travel as minimally as possible ended up being one of my greatest learning experiences as a photographer. Learning how sometimes the gear you choose does matter. Learning that taking away options and adding in restrictions can enrich and focus experiences rather than diminishing them. Learning that perfection in photos is a looser concept than I had previously thought and the best photos are the ones that communicate the most emotions. Ideas that first entered my mind on this trip have grown over the last years and continue to inform my approach to photography, to art, and how to look at the world around me.