Community LomoAmigo Can Tanrıseven and His Lomo'Instant Photos

Name: Can Tanrıseven
LomoHome: cantanriseven
Location: İzmir, Turkey
Instagram: can_tnrsvn
Website: seyrphotos

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I work in the chemical industry. I was a musician during and after university. I play guitar. We have a group named King Kong Blues Band. We still keep playing.

I have been taking pictures for about 10 years, but I can say that this is the first 3 years were more snapshots of daily events. I do my own black and white film and card bath processes. I'm doing pinhole shots, so I event went to work on a wooden pinhole camera.

Later I joined various mixed exhibitions. In 2015 my photos were published in the UK analogue photo magazine Optiko Zine. Most recently, the project titled "Dadaizmir", consisting of instax / polaroid cards, which I shot and painted over, was exhibited in Fotoistanbul 2016.

We know that you are interested in analog photography for a very long time. What introduced you to analog photography? When did you start taking analog photos?

I was photographing with a compact camera in 2006 and I wanted to take a DSLR camera to take some better pictures. At that time good digital cameras were very expensive. My close friend Erdem gave me the most manual analog SLR machine and that's how it all started. Then I did not get the satisfaction I wanted in the digital shots I experimented with and I continued analogue.

Do you remember the first camera you owned?

My first camera was an SLR machine called Revue Flex TL 25. I can even say that I learned to take a pictures with experimenting, because the light meter did not work. I never needed a light meter in my subsequent shoots. I experienced all the problems such as film not winding, light leaks, overexposure, underexposure to be experienced in analogue cameras, I learned to use it over time. This process gave me a very good experience.

We know that you own a lot of cameras! Which ones do you have more fun using, what are your favorites?

From 1920's bellowing cameras to TLR cameras, rangefinder, SLR, compact cameras, I have probably around 20 cameras. With the advantage of being small and light, the Lomo LC-A is always ready in my bag, especially for street shooting. Apart from that, I have a special interest in the cameras of the 50-60s. My favorite is the Zeiss Ikon Contaflex with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens (renounced as the sharpest lens in the world when it was launched) with a leaf shutter mechanism that I can call from the first SLRs of 1954. Now, instant photography is what excites me for the time being, so my last obsession is Lomo'Instant.

Recently you started using the Lomo’Instant and had amazing results with different techniques. How was your Lomo’Instant experience?

I was shooting with a borrowed compact snapshot camera, which had a constant aperture and shutter speed, and there was no flash-off mode, the flash was always bursting day and night. So the photos did not come out the way I wanted. Especially the thing that attracted me to Lomo'Instant is that it has 5 different aperture value (f8, f11, f16, f22, f32) and also has multiple exposure and bulb modes, which are very ideal functions to do different creative works. I do not use any flash in daytime shooting and using the colored flash filters instead of a white flash for the night can add a nice touch to the photos.

We noticed that you liked using the Splitzer a lot. What are you paying attention to when using the Splitzer?

I tried to put a different object on a different floor in general with Splitzer. It's like the Galata Tower photograph that was under water. This has allowed me to get a more realistic, even more cinematographic image. In this type of splitzer shooting, when taking two halves, I pay attention to shoot at the same aperture with the same light.

Did you have any special moments when shooting? Can you share the funniest, weirdest or best Lomographic experience you had?

We were at the vineyard and an owl entered through the window at night. I got my camera. he was afraid of me and I was afraid of him. It started to fly towards the window, I took a flash photo when he was about 1m away, a single frame and a very good photograph with sheer luck.

Is there a photo which you consider to be your favorite? If so, can you share with us the story behind it?

Actually, I always like to look at new projects and photos. But I have a story like this; I photographed the village of Doganbey in Kusadasi in 2010 and I was thinking of going digital. There was a DSLR camera and an analog Smena Symbol. I shot 150-200 digital images, and I shot 3-4 frames with Smena. One of the frames I shot with Smena was very good, even a photo of the week was selected on a website, almost all of my digital pics were garbage. I never shot digital after that day and that photo again.

If you had the change to go any where in the world with your cameras and a bag full of films, where would you want to go?

I want to see lots of places in the world and photograph them. But first I would like to start from my own country, I want to visit and photograph Turkey, not the cities but the detailed villages. Maybe it's a dream that I can complete a part of it. I do not want to do travel or touristic photographs, but rather shoot in places where people live in a more documentary way, I would like to study the works they have done in a more sociological perspective and create a bond with them when photographing them.

Where or from whom do you take your inspiration for photos?

I get inspired from the music I listen to, from what I read, from my friends, from İzmir, from Istanbul, from places I visit, from people, according to the mood I'm in, anything can give me inspiration.

Do you have any tips for Lomo’Instant users?

It is useful if you have some knowlegde about manual cameras. I would recommend it to those who want to take instant pictures. It is very enjoyable to instantly view the photo on the card. And this is not a digital image but an analogue image - a texture and a spirit. Especially for those who want to do creative work, the multiple exposure mode can give very different results, and when you use it, you can underexpose or overexpose your images to make more successful photographs. Macro shooting is also very important for a quick machine. I would suggest it to those who want to take macro shots.

written by nural on 2016-12-09 #gear #people #lomo-instant