Homemade Redscale Film + My iTunes =

The most time-consuming photography project I've undertaken so far.

The Process

• Step 1: go into pitch-dark bathroom at witching hour and pull out the film of an unused roll.
• Step 2: cut the film, flip it over, and tape it back up.
• Step 3: wind the flipped film back into the canister, and don't forget to cut a new leader.
• Step 4: load into film camera.
• Step 5: shoot without regret.
• Step 6: carefully remove finished roll of film from camera and run to the print lab.
• Step 7: do something interesting for 2 days.
• Step 8: pick up prints and react.
• Step 9: scan prints into computer.
• Step 10: choose sacred lyrics of real music to match prints.
• Step 11: creatively overlay lyrics onto the pictures. 
• Step 12: upload!

The Final Product

          The redscale didn't turn out as I expected. To be honest, I had hoped for more variations with oranges and yellows, but the areas in the photos are basically just black or red. Also, I obviously wasn't in control of the lighting. Many images were underexposed. Some were overexposed. Some I can't even tell what happened... Nevertheless, I am extremely proud of the raw outcome because they don't just look damaged, they are damaged. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Instagram.

          Even the digital overlaying I did is based on how they would have done it in the past with magazine layouts. The point was not to retouch the picture but do the minimal amount of editing, which was simply adding statements to the raw images. 

          I particularly like this project because it merges and reflects many dimensions of my interests - film, lomography, rock music, story-telling, typography, etc. - and because it strongly reminds me of my closest friends.

Happy birthday, Micah.