This was my final project for a black and white still life course, and back in 2003 my professor had little hope in me. It wasn’t that he particularly doubted my skills. Rather, he thought it was a dull concept. He, understandably, had no idea how exciting the concept of Remz were, or how strikingly different they were from other skates of the time.
The skates in this particular study are the second-generation Remedyz. Known by many as the first Remz you didn’t need to send in a tracing of your foot to the company in order to get a pair. My only goal was to capture their radical departure from other hard-boot and even soft-boot skates of the time…
Shot on Kodak Tri-X and developed on Ilford fiber paper, this photo study would ultimately be my last black and white film project. Using a single light source and not knowing enough to use bounce cards or secondary lighting, this dorm room-located photo study is a point of pride for me.
It wasn’t just excitement about how far my own work had advanced, but that look on my professor’s face. His genuine shock that there was so much beauty to a rollerblade. The guy actually told me he was expecting to fail me for this. I wound up with an “A” in the class.
I took one more film-based class for color photography. I think I’m somewhat blessed to have studied photography while their was still an opportunity to shoot on film, especially color-film. (Not something many have been lucky enough to do.) I don’t miss the fixer-stained clothes or the pitch-black of a color photo lab. I do miss the simple joy of watching an image appear in a pool of developer. — Hillel Dove
Haute-Couture.
boringggggg
Very nice attention to detail in your pictures! Hey, I STILL use film to this day — and there are labs available — but I’ve been preparing for the transition to digital. How was your change of medium? What’s your set-up like these days? And do you ever find yourself pining for film with more than just a passing nostalgia?
Shooting skates can be really fun, great opportunity to get creative. I shot Be Schawb’s XSJADO boot a while back.
http://scophoto.blogspot.com/2010/12/ben-shwabs-xsjado-pro-model-boot.html
Idiot.
@Todd, thanks a lot! I really got into digital off the bat. I think I got hooked because of how quickly you could produce finished work. I do miss film though but the cost is pretty prohibitive these days. Although the Impossible Project makes me want to get a Polaroid just about every time I get their newsletter.
@Scott, those shots are nice! Def more product oriented. I’ve shot a bunch of sneakers but no more shots of just skates.
@One, thanks for running these!
