Turning the tables on our usual Q&A, Liisa Hannus from Vancouver Is Awesome chatted with our fearless leader Katie Stewart about the transition to film photography and illustration. While we love the magic and possibility of digital photography and technology, all of our issues in 2012 will feature only analog art, including illustration and painting. Issue 9 (the Transplant issue, on stands now!) was the first to feature only print photography. It’s a decision worth explaining to our pals and readers, so read on for our rationale:
Liisa Hannus: What prompted you to go all analog for the photography and illustrations in this issue? Is there a connection to the theme?
Katie Stewart: Absolutely. The Transplant issue is about transition, in more ways than you might think. We’re not only looking at people who have transplanted from East to West and vice-versa, but lateral transitions across continuums of gender, sexuality, geography, and in this case, technology. In all of these movements, there is a sense of rawness and vulnerability. So we decided it would be really fitting to look at a lateral transition in artistic medium. From digital–which can be modified, enhanced, and photoshopped into something radically different–back to film and polaroid. This means you’re getting the raw deal. It may seem a little rough around the edges, but it is beautiful in its imperfection–just like Sad Mag really.
Katie Stewart, fearless leader
LH: With the prevalence of software like Instragram that gives people the instant ability to apply a “film” look to digital images, do you think Sad Mag’s readers will notice any difference? Or was it mainly as a challenge for yourselves, to add a challenge to what you do?
KS: Instagram is an amazing little tool, and frankly, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t horribly addicted. I like that people are attracted to some of the traditional aesthetic qualities of film, but something I’ve also noticed is the prevalence of #nofilter images that come up on the feed. There is a certain reverence for images that are untouched. So will you be able to tell that the photographic images in the Transplant Issue of Sad Mag are film and Polaroid only? I think so–just look at the grain, not the pixels–and overall, the image quality is totally different. The photographers for this issue shot with 35mm, medium format (check out the double exposures by Angela Fama), old-school polaroid, Fuji Instax, and even shot with disposable plastic cameras. Was it a challenge? Hell yes.
LH: Were the contributing photographers already used to working with film, or was this a new experience for them?
KS: Photographers such as Jeff Downer, Wayne Webb, and Ryan Walter Wagner shoot film regularly, so they were a really good fit for the issue. Other photographers, such as Leigh Righton–who is an extremely talented digital photographer (check out her shots of David Lynch)–had to put their favorite digital cameras away and source out film cameras specifically for the shoot. Even Brandon Gaukel, Sad Mag’s founding creative director, did his shoot with a disposable camera–brave boy.
geneva.b shot by Katie Stewart for the Transplant issue.
LH: What kind of challenges did this approach present for the Sad team?
KS: Puns aside, with film you only get one shot. You can’t see your results immediately so you really have to rely on your mad skills and hope to hell that when your film comes back it looks good. There is also a limit to how many photos you can actually take. 12 exposures isn’t a lot. And polaroid film packs you get even less. There are obviously cost constraints. Film ain’t cheap. We were really lucky to have our developing and scanning provided by The Lab (www.thelabvancouver.com), otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to make this issue look the way it does.
LH: How did it change the production process?
KS: Ironically, it made it really smooth in the production phase. It puts more responsibility/pressure on the artist to produce an image that, sans photoshop, can be published. So by the time we’re in production, there is really barely any editing to do, other than color balancing to the magazine proof, so when we print it, it looks like the original.
Shad, photographed by Leigh Righton for the Transplant Issue
LH: You mentioned that Kevin Kerr from Electric Company gave you some interesting feedback. How did that conversation happen and what did he have to say about this project?
KS: One of our writers, Ralph Bingham, sat down with Kerr and interviewed him in light of his play, Studies in Motion, which deals with the transition of film to motion picture. I guess you could say he has a vested interest in these types of transitions. Kerr is a brilliant playwright–we’re lucky to have him in Vancouver. Not surprisingly, he’s an eloquent speaker and writer. (Web editor’s note: We’ll be posting an interview with him on SadMag.ca later this week)
Iris and Diana Taborsky-Tasa, featured in the Transplant Issue. Photo by Angela Fama
LH: Now that you’ve done it, do you think you’ll do another all-film issue again, or perhaps look to using a mix of film and digital art work in future issues?
KS: If we have any digital images we’d like to use, they go up on the Sad Mag website. Only film, polaroid, and illustration make it to print. As long as no one closes all the photo developing places in Vancouver, I want to do an entire year (4 issues) of film/Polaroid. Even just from looking at the Transplant issue, it has radically changed the caliber of images we print. Pick up an issue–tell us what you think.