Poetic double exposures by Charles Schneider with the Lomography Redscale 120

A few months ago we presented you the medium format shots taken by photographer Charles Schneider in this interview. Today, the 120 format enthusiast is back to present us with a new series of images taken with the Lomography Redscale XR 120 50-200 ISO film. Charles delivers dreamlike and pictorial pictures made with the double exposure technique. He tells us more about his latest shots while sharing his tips to successfully overlap images with a film camera.

Hello Charles, we are pleased to welcome you back to Lomography Magazine! What have you been up to since last time?

Hello, glad to be back! Since the last time I've been in a bit of an experimentation phase, I'm lucky enough to know some very creative people who do a lot of different things, from crochet to painting, from music to writing, and I think it motivates me to try new things in photography. I've started painting my old black and white negatives with watercolour and I'm quite fond of the way it looks, it adds an even more manual dimension to film photography that I love. When i've had more practice with the brush I would like to create a series of photos taken specifically to be painted.

What is the concept behind the series you are presenting today?

It is a series of portraits in double exposure that I made in my living room in Toulouse. Several ideas got mixed up and gave this concept. I came across an advertisement on the internet for a Star Wars game that was composed in the manner of an overlay of two portraits and it made me want to look at the posters of the films. They have compositions that are coming back into fashion at the moment with multiple layers of information on top of each other. I like to finish each roll of film with a double exposure that's a little bit improvised in the moment and these posters made me want to see what I could do with a little more preparation.

For the look of the series I wanted something reminiscent of a painting rather than a photograph, and I was inspired by the still life paintings of the Dutch painters of the 17th century. I also wanted to produce rather dark portraits so I could fill in the shadows with the second exposure.

Why did you choose to make these images with the Lomography Redscale film?

It is rather the Lomography Redscale that made me choose to make these images! I had never tried this film and just decided it was time to do so. I knew the concept of redscale film and how to make it in 35 mm, but since I shoot mostly medium format I had never been able to try it because I didn't know how to make redscale film myself in 120 film. When I saw that there was a Lomography Redscale in medium format I immediately wanted to try it even though I had no idea what I wanted to do or what it would look like. I think that giving yourself constraints is a good way to produce new things and I thought "ok I have some redscale film, what can I do with it?"

Most of the images I've seen with the Lomography Redscale have been shot outdoors and in natural light, so I decided to do the opposite and make images in a studio situation. I find that the red and orange tones of the film contribute to the old-fashioned painting mood of the images, but also that these colors make the photos feel strange, like a freeze-frame on a scene from a dream, when shapes and colors no longer make sense.

What do you like about analogue double exposures?

I like that it's not real. That it looks like it's coming out of a dream, you can play with the textures, the orientations, the distances and it's an extra tool during a shoot. I like not knowing what the image will look like. It's a bit of a lottery and, honestly for me, it's more often a failure than a success but when the image is beautiful the satisfaction is tenfold compared to a normal image. And I also like the fact that sometimes you can have nice surprises and forget to advance the film three times and make the most beautiful accidental triple exposure you've ever made.

Do you have any advice to share for taking double exposures?

Take notes! This is a technique that can only be perfected by trial and error. Whether it's deciding on the exposure for each image, whether to take the background before the portrait or not, whether to take the brightest photo first, etc. these are decisions that are made on a case-by-case basis, so the best thing to do is to take notes on what you did for each image, so that it's easy to see what works and what doesn't when the photos are developed. For this series of portraits, I shot a black and white film to try the double exposures and to know how I would proceed with the Lomography Redscale. In general it's always useful to be able to know how you did it when you have an image you really like.

Thank you Charles for sharing your photos and tips! You can follow the photographer on Instagram.

The Lomography Redscale is available in 35 mm, 120 and 110 formats on our online shop.

written by florinegarcin on 2022-10-02 #gear #people #portrait #redscale #mx #multiple-exposure #double-exposure #experimental-photography #lomography-redscale-xr-120 #charles-schneider