PLANET CHOCKO – art/music/movies/beyond

Why shoot still photography in film especially in 120 medium format and why the Holga camera? First, I chose the Holga camera because it was the most basic and most anti-technology as you can get. The Holga is basically just a toy camera that was manufactured in China circa 1981, made almost entirely of plastic, and some even have plastic lenses. It was designed for the chinese consumer as a low-budget, everyday kind of camera for capturing family photos and portraits, but has since gathered a cult following. The Holga was simply a cheap camera with a plastic low-contrast lens that produced soft (often blurry) images with edge vignetting and uncontrollable light leaks! The low-fi look and unpredictable results made capturing images fun again! I tried messing with getting multiple exposures on a single shot which was mucho fun! I have a few photos below that have the multiple exposure look!

I thought using the Holga with 120 film would be a pretty cool way to document my trip in an organic fashion, not worrying about getting the perfect shot but to instead just be in the moment of the scene and background without being intrusive with the latest and greatest camera technology and bazooka zoom lens to distract the subject I was trying to capture. To make up for the low fidelity look, using the bigger size and more superior film like the 120 increases the size of the film negative which allows for much more resolution and detail. Using the inferior Holga camera with the superior 120 film compared to 35mm sounds like a contradiction and it is but the combination of the two makes a certain aesthetic effect that is very nostalgic and appealing! The only drawback of using 120 film is the availabilty and cost of developing the film.