Jacqueline Badeaux's Never-ending Analogue Experimentation ft. the Lomo LC-A 120 and Diana F+

Jacqueline Badeaux is an experimental photographer currently based in Austin, Texas with a distinct style that invokes a sense of dreaminess through her surrealist approach to shooting. Previously featured for her experimentation with the Lomo LC-A as well as her seemingly magical landscapes, Jacqueline is back to share her more recent photos taken with her trusty Lomo LC-A 120 and her first impressions of the Diana F+.

Hi Jacqueline, welcome back to Lomography Magazine! Can you tell us what you've been up to since your last feature?

I have been starting to experiment more with medium format. It has been exciting to work with a different shape and size film. There is more surface area to double expose or bleach on the negative. I’ve also been focusing less on shooting so much and more on getting together series that come about after time away from the negatives. Then I continue to build off that idea later when it comes together. I’ve got different series together for books and I have also been thinking about the most interesting ways of showing prints in public spaces rather than online platforms.

How did you decide what to shoot with the Diana F+?

I liked to use incomplete advancement to make a continuous series on one roll of film. I tried to make the environments or subjects blend together in strange ways. I’d like to keep working with this idea to make a story all on one roll of film without frames separating one thing from the next. I also experimented some with the pinhole feature for self portraits which I’ve not really done before. For those, I was thinking of an artist I admire a lot, Francesca Woodman.

Can you tell us about the process that you went through shooting with the Diana?

I didn’t love most of the photos I took in square format, so I turned them more rectangular by combining exposures and advancing the camera just a little and taking a new photo on and on like that. I would love to see these printed giant along a wall that you can walk along and experience like a storyline or imagine walking into a strange landscape, where you can step closer to see the small curious details.

Can you share any tips or tricks for using the Diana?

I created my own splitzer for this camera to get a little more control of the double exposures, turning upside down and double exposing.

What was your favorite feature of the Diana F+?

I love how this camera has the option to shoot also with a pinhole. To double expose with that gave me lots of freedom to experiment. I also love the way you can advance and shoot as you please, rather than the camera forcing a full advance before allowing another exposure.

Who would you recommend the Diana F+ camera to?

There's a lot of possibilities with this camera, not many limitations. There's flash, normal apertures, pinhole setting. Someone who just wants to play around with different ideas can do so all on one camera.

Do you have a favorite photo that you took with one of the cameras? Is there a story behind it?

The photos taken at the catacombs of Paris and the Cemetery of Montparnasse series are special to me. These three long images I created with this idea to make it “all one image/negative” using the Lomo LC-A 120. You can see where they attach a little bit. I took pictures underground and then in the cemetery above. There was a man walking around who was guiding visitors to various burial sites of famous people like Baudelaire, Sartre, Jean Seberg, Gainsbourg, Brassaï, Sontag, Man Ray, on and on. He went there everyday to visit his wife and liked to share stories about each site he took us to. I took each photo advancing incompletely and masking different parts of the negative and flipping the camera upside down with the idea to make these like a surreal collage on the negative.

Do you have any future or upcoming projects that you can share?

I’m focused on my 100 page book, S.L.V. to be self-published next year. It’s taken me 10 years to collect these images all taken in San Luis Valley in memory of my late father. I buried a small photograph of him as a kid there in the valley and visit often to keep in touch. This place is my creative home and has a special kind of beauty and magic there.

Anything else that you'd like to share?

I’d like for people to not feel limited by the rules sometimes taught about photography. I think the weird and unexpected images I create excite me the most. The most important thing to me about film photography is the endless possibility of experimentation, and pushing oneself further into new ideas or focus. When I have used one technique too many times I tend to get bored and want to try something different. I don’t think I will ever get bored with photography because to me it has so many elements to mess with and get different results from, whether it is created with a camera, the exposure, development, or applying texture/bleach to the negative. I’m working on creating teaching units for people because I would love to share the various ways film can be so fun and its remedial potential.

If you're interested in keeping up with Jacqueline and her photography don't forget to check out her LomoHome, website and Instagram.

written by eloffreno on 2023-01-16 #gear #people #experimental #dreamy #surreal #experimentation #magical