Online Group Exhibition - "Analog Forever" October 2018
"Burning Down The Ice" by Jennifer Rumbach | Polaroid SX-70 + Expired Polaroid Time Zero Film
Analog Film is a wonder in and of itself. Analog photographers share the love for the sound of shutters clapping open and close, the smell of darkroom chemicals in the morning, and the impatient patience we have when we finally see our images appear before our eyes. Regardless of your format of choice, how expensive your lens set is, or the subject matter you shoot, the analog process is the common thread that allows us to come together as a community.
Though artists that use this medium are considered to be stuck in the past by our digital counterparts, we know that isn’t true. We are pioneers! We are trail blazers who shoot decades old expired film through refurbished cameras, capture images with processes invented a century ago, and invent new and creative ways to process and manipulate our mainstream film stock staples. The glory that is analog has been preserved in our hearts and in our work, through photographs that can’t be erased when a website goes bust or a smartphone breaks. Our work will be preserved for the foreseeable feature, if properly archived, and will be available for viewing for the generations that come after us. Through our endeavors the analog medium will truly last forever.
With this months group exhibition we are celebrating the launch of Analog Forever Magazine, a brand new online and print publisher of analog photography. Our theme this month was of course “Analog Forever” because it’s a goal we share with our viewers and it’s what unites us together. We had the pleasure of reviewing 200+ submissions for this month’s online exhibition and we were thoroughly impressed. The wide range of images we received were incredibly diverse and were submitted from around the world! We couldn't be more thrilled to see all of your images. Unfortunately, as with all things, we had to select only a portion of the photographs we had the privilege to view.
The resulting 30 photographers and images we selected for this month’s exhibition represent a wide range of styles, mediums, formats, and processes. We encourage you to visit each and every one of these photographer’s websites to learn more about them and their work. We also challenge you to pick your favorite photograph and reach out to the artist who created it, with the goal of offering them encouragement or to simply say hello. I promise you this will be the best part of their day and you will make a profound difference in how we interact as a community. Please make sure to leave your comments at the bottom of this page and discuss which images are your favorites and why!
-Michael Behlen
Founder, Analog Forever Magazine
Gallery
About the Curator
Michael Behlen is a photography enthusiast from Fresno, CA. He works in finance and spends his free time shooting instant film and backpacking in the California wilderness, usually a combination of the two. He has self- published two Polaroid photobooks-“Searching for Stillness, Vol. 1” and “I Was a Pioneer,” literally a boxed set of his instant film work. He recently had work shown at Tête de L'Art Association's Group ExPolaroid Exhibition, "Polaroid Is Not Dead" at Hôtel Pasteur à Rennes in France during the month of May 2017. He has been published, been interviewed, and been reviewed in a quantity of magazines and online publications, from F-Stop and Blur Magazine to the Analog Talk Podcast. He loves the magic sensuality of instant film: its saturated, surreal colors; the unpredictability of the medium; it’s addictive qualities as you watch it develop.
For the last 5 years Behlen has become a serial entrepreneur involved in independent publishing projects which include PRYME Magazine and PRYME Editions, two enterprises dedicated to the art of instant film. Through these endeavors he has featured 200+ artists from around the world via his print and online publications. Today, Behlen is the founder of Analog Forever Magazine, a brand new online and print publisher of contemporary analog photography.
