Last Best Picture
In 2023, I started an adventure in film photography. I chose the Yashica Electro GSN rangefinder camera which was made between 1973-1977. The lens, the heft, the time it takes to set and focus the shot, the click and glide to the next frame, are all sensory memories from when I was a young girl.
Over the last year I have begun the process of strengthening my skills in framing, focusing, and exposure. I am delighted by the way a film camera lens captures the elements of movement, texture, and light as I was experiencing them. What I did not expect was a felt recall of my own embodied presence while in the moment of capture.
What a gift to be held in this slow cycle of forgetting and remembering.
A good companion for me at this time has been Dawoud Bey on Photographing People and Communities. I recommend it to anyone interested in reading about how other artists form and evolve their practice.
“ ‘Always start with your last best picture.’ He taught that intuition might produce a profound photograph and that we needed to lean into those images rather than labor over things that didn’t work. This advice applies to more than just photography.” (Excerpt from intro by Brian Ulrich)
Dezi, my dog sister, is my “last best picture” from my first roll of 35mm film taken in Nov 2023. Dezi is one of my favorite subjects but she’s a challenge to capture because she is always on the move with her nose to the ground. I have liked several pictures I’ve taken since but there is still something so provocative to me about the movement in her fur and back leg, the distinctive fall shaft of light and shadows, the textures and palette, and the question of where she might be heading next.
I’d like to take more pictures like this one.
