Who would have thought that Aziz Ansari is a film enthusiast? We have to say we were a bit surprised when we heard from his manager that he appreciates the Lomography photos and Super 8 films we've been quietly making here in Austin, TX for the past two years. We have always been huge fans of Aziz and have not had the opportunity to shoot anyone outside of the music industry for Transistor Six. When the opportunity presented itself we were thrilled to get the chance to meet Aziz and get some shots of him.
When Aziz came to town on his "Modern Romance Tour" this past month as part of the Moontower Comedy Festival, we met up with him after the show to shoot some photos. As we set up we noticed Aziz had the two essentials any serious performer should have backstage; gummy bears and bourbon. He was a bit under the weather that night but his performance did not suffer. Aziz was enthusiastic about the gear, and pulled out all the stops while we were shooting him.
We also got to shoot some Super 8 Film, so while that's at the lab being processed we thought we would share the Lomography photos and explain what we used and how we captured them. We often get questions from people asking what app we used or how we edited the images in photoshop. For the record, these images are not edited. We post them exactly as they came from the developed roll of film we shot.
For starters, I have a refrigerator full of film I shot over the past few years, which I am using as textures for multiple exposure photography. Everything from 4th of July fireworks and neon signs, to cities like Berlin and airplane wings. Multiple exposure photography is basically when you shoot the same roll of film two or three times creating a double, or triple image.
For Aziz I chose two 35mm texture rolls I had shot last summer, one roll was shot using a Lomography Fisheye No.2 camera with an underwater housing called the "Fisheye Submarine". Photos were shot here in Austin, TX in Barton Springs. I shot plant life, air bubbles, sunlight from underwater and some friends swimming who came along.
The other roll was shot on my Lomography LC-A+ camera at a farm where I photographed old barn structures, animals and interesting landscapes. I also took a few portraits of Azizi using a Lomography Diana F+ camera with a close up lens and a ring flash.
As for the type of film (yes this matters) I bought some (expired) Kodak Ektachrome E100S film. You can get this either from Lomography (if it's in stock) or from ebay. Why expired? Well first, they don't manufacture it any longer so what's out there is all there is. Secondly, expired film can create some excellent color changes over time.
