Scotch 1000
“The film that’s so bad it’s good.”
I was leafing through a photography book earlier this week. A technical how-to about still life and "special effects". Tons of diagrams and specs. Interesting setup ideas, but most of the results left me very, very cold. Think cringey. So I'd rather not link to it. But it's the book's publication date that threw me: 2007.
I know that's almost twenty years ago, which is, empirically, a long time. Heck, our youngest daughter wasn't even born yet. But I was sure I was reading something from the early 90s: all the images are shot on film; all the gear is analog; and computers are mentioned once, in passing. A lot of the work is taken from various commercial campaigns too, and everything looks downright ancient. Here's an excerpt from the book's introduction:
This may also explain why relatively few amateurs shoot still lifes: 4 × 5in is still not widely regarded as an amateur format, though it seems to be gaining ground surprisingly rapidly.
Another one:
Today it is quite usual to work towards precisely the right set-up and lighting by using several generations of Polaroids, and once again, this explains why 4 x 5in is so popular: the Polaroids are big enough to see (even 6 x 7cm Polaroids are pretty marginal for detailed analysis), but they are also affordable.
And finally:
As for film, in this book it is very much a question of "the usual suspects": Kodak Ektachrome (mostly ISO 64 and ISO 100), Fuji RDP and RDP IIISO 100 and Fuji Velvia…
Pre-iPhone, pre-social media... pre-digital. An alternate universe. Changes deep enough to erase memories of the past.
…
The fruit bowl.
Shot with the Lensbaby Edge 80.
What does this book have to do with the images in today's post? One of the examples shows a blurry, uber-grainy bowl of fruit, shot with "Scotch/3M ISO 1000 film". I'd never heard of it, but it immediately made me reach for a camera. I picked up the X-H2 (still "loaded" with the Reala Ace simulation, the 60mm + MCEX-11) and set the ISO to 4000. In Lightroom, I added even more grain (1). Looks like I'm on an abstract binge again.
It's only after I was done that I looked up that film's history, and it's rather fascinating. Definitely niche and iconoclastic. Japan Camera Hunter does a good job if you're interested: Film Review: Scotch Chrome 1000.
You learn every day.
And everything’s a trigger.
1: I should try Fujiflm's built-in grain engine again. It might be interesting in this case.
