Indisposable Concept gallery featuring Rachel B.

Camera used: Shot with an Ilford B&W disposable camera
Film type: Ilford
Age: N/A
Where: The Lake District, England, in a little village called Elterwater. UK
When: September, 2014

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Hi guys!

I’m afraid it was going to cost a bit too much to send my disposable camera over from the UK to you in Australia so I’ve had it processed and attached the digital scans of the photos to this email instead.

Here’s a little bit of background to my Indisposable Concept story. 🙂

I have been completely in love with film and vintage cameras for years and about six months ago I happened to come across an old, expired and dusty disposable camera in the back of a drawer. I thought I’d shoot the roll and was rewarded with some lovely pink-tinted autumn colours but unfortunately only 5 or 6 of the images came out. It started me thinking about disposable cameras again though, and after sharing a couple of these initial pictures on Instagram with various film-based hashtags, I stumbled across the Indisposable Concept and have been dying to try it out again properly ever since! After having followed IC for a while and seeing the wonderful images other people were taking and sharing, I realised that some of my favourites were produced by the Ilford B&W cameras so I thought this would be the way to go for me.

I applied for an artist’s residency at the Kurt Switters’ Merzbarn in Cumbria on the spur of the moment back in July and when my proposal was accepted, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to incorporate the Indisposable Concept project within my work. I wanted to use the 10 days of the residency to develop analogue workshops and produce material for my portfolio as part of the set up for my company – Little Vintage Photography.

The KSDIY 2014 residency took place in the beautiful surroundings of the Lake District, England, in a little village called Elterwater and I was pretty much spoilt for choice in terms of the landscapes around us and the material it provided. Due to the fact that I was one of the only participants at the residency to have a car, I ended up providing transport for some impromptu mini-roadtrips away from site and I love that the photos I took on those days, serve as a happy reminder of the fun I had with the other artists. We got to visit some beautiful, intriguing and inspiring places including William Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage and the incredible Blackwell Arts and Crafts House. Having my Indisposable Concept camera with me meant that it felt like I was really on an adventure and that part of my mission was to capture it on film.

Picking a favourite from the roll is tough. There are definitely some I’m less keen on, but they all still remind me of a particular moment, and that is the beauty behind using film and why I love to use it.

I think one of my favourites is the shot of the ferns. It’s pretty special as it was literally taken INSIDE a cloud! I’ve always been drawn to natural subjects and this image felt like a shot I would have normally taken with my digital camera, however, due to the weather, there was no way I would have been brave enough to risk capturing it with my electronic kit and my disposable camera came to the rescue!

We’d made this group decision to go on a crazy hike up (what felt like!) a mountain, in the middle of a rain storm where we basically walked straight into a cloud and got soaked to the skin. We were all slipping and sliding around and I sat down for a rest and a chat with one of the other artists, Jo. The two of us shared a couple of squares of chocolate and were gathering our energy for the downhill struggle. I’d been a bit disappointed about the fact that I wasn’t able to capture anything particularly good in the conditions, when I realised how lovely the ferns looked covered in the raindrops with the slightly surreal background of solid cloud.

It helped me to realise that even though I was in an environment where you would naturally look to take a photograph of the landscape (there is one on the roll), the best shot at that time, was actually on a smaller scale and closer to home. It challenged me to adapt my ideas of what I wanted to produce and it made me work to solve the problem creatively.

Not being able to see the photos as I took them was brilliant and it is one of the main reasons I love analogue. It stopped me from taking unnecessary shots and also from being overly critical by looking back at the images over and over again. It was just exciting to know that I’d captured one scene and was now looking for the next.

The only part of the Indisposable Concept I wasn’t so keen on, was the idea of shooting a selfie. It’s not something I’ve ever really embraced so in the end I decided to get the picture of me as part of a group shot. When we stopped for ice-cream on the way back to the Merzbarn site I grabbed an unsuspecting member of the public and directed him to take the photo. It was actually really lovely as he seemed to get quite nostalgic over the fact I was asking him to use a disposable camera. Obviously I explained about the Indisposable Concept so perhaps he will have a go himself at some point. 🙂 In the end, I was really pleased with the photo he took. I’m second in from the right – the one with the biggest ice-cream!

If I were to do the project again (which I plan to!) I want to challenge myself to get outside of my comfort zone and try and get more portrait-based or street photography shots under my belt. These are areas that I’m less confident in and ones which I want to learn more about in terms of what works and what doesn’t.

If the IC were able to get to the point where they could also present the project with a competition element, that would be great but I’d like to see that it was still an open submission as well.

Finally, to answer your submission question about an exhibition, I’d love to see some of my IC pictures up in a gallery environment in future and it’d be great to know how and where they are used. I hope, in some small way, they can hold their own next to the amazing images I’ve seen so far..

Thanks Indisposable Concept for keeping the analogue love alive! I’ve had a thoroughly wonderful time with the project. I’m already saving up for my next Ilford camera so I can have another go and I will definitely be spreading the word.

Rachel Brewster
Little Vintage Photography

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