Newcomer of the Week: Caroline Bonarde

For Community newcomer Caroline Bonarde, spontaneity is the key to truly artistic, uninhibited images. Playing with motion blurs and unusual colors, she embraces the nuances that come with shooting on instant film. No second chances, no polishing — all the portraits in her LomoHome are made out of the beautiful accidents and impulses that are essential to her creative expression.

Please tell us something about yourself and what you do.

Hi, my name is Caroline and I was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil but I have been living in London, England for the past 15 years. I have been shooting analogue for the past 10 years. I don’t consider myself a photographer so much, more a visual artist, since my work is mainly done with instant film cameras and film cameras and I aim for very experimental images.

How did you find the Community and who/what convinced you to join?

I found the community while looking to buy the new Lomo’Instant Automat, being a complete instant photography addict, and the results I have been seeing of people shooting with it just made it very irresistible to me.

As you have read the 10 Golden Rules of Lomography, what rule do you apply in your everyday life?

I think to me Rules Number 1, 2, and 3 go together, that’s how much I made shooting Lomographic images part of my life, I take it everywhere, I’ll shoot any time of the day and it's part of who I am pretty much. But in general all rules suit my style very well. Most people that are in my life know that they will be photographed and that it’s not going to be a conventional portrait, that they will be shot in weird angles, when they least expect it and without any rules to it. They also won’t know what’s in it and probably not even after we get the picture! So I think that’s all rules covered!

In this digital age, why still film?

I think photography, in general, can be either a medium used for the purpose of doing something like capturing an image that is the perfect reproduction of a subject, done with excellent technique (and that can be done with film or digital photography) or can be used as an artistic tool for self expression and creativity. Of course, in both ways it'll be advantageous to have a little bit of the other involved to achieve excellence, but I feel with film photography creativity and expression flow more easily and specially with Lomography, as accidents and impulses are all part of this creative expression. It’s the spontaneous burst that creates something magical.

Your favorite analog camera as of the moment? Why?

My favourite analogue camera at the moment is the Instax Mini90, which I am replacing with the Lomo'Instant Automat (which I am about to receive). The reason for that is that I love instant film and the quality of it. It’s got a painting feel, a soft focus that is dreamy, almost like it’s a frame of memory and that is exactly what my work is about: Memory and Dream. I also adore the feature of multiple exposures which gives the image a narrative and the quality of a sensation, a feeling, an emotion.

What is the Lomographic camera you’d want to have someday?

I would love to have the Lomo'Instant Wide. The mini format is great because I scan the images on high resolution and they look amazing in the screen once you scan them, but having them bigger and seeing the real picture with a bit more definition is always great.

Any song, book, or movie you live by?

Various, as I am a major music, literature and cinema fan. I think I’m deeply influenced by all these art types and that’s why I have the need to give my images more of a narrative than a simple reproduction of a subject. I also like to photograph my life intimately and people around me so my images are basically everything I am living, thinking or feeling. I think I can say I am very influenced by Existentialism so Gothic Rock in music or Classical music, Camus and Dostoyevski in literature and pretty much any cinema auteur who portrays real human emotions, deserve mention.

Share your current favorite Lomograph, could be yours or a friend’s. Why?

Oh this is so hard as with these amazing communities and so many wonderful people shooting analogue, there are too many to think of. Since I like to portray my life I will share one of my own self-portraits that I think really represents what I want to show with my work which are sensations and frames of memories. I named it “Bliss”.

Any Community member you look up to? If so, why him or her?

I have only just joined the Community and I still have so many pictures to upload and many parts that I haven’t managed to discover yet, but I can see that there are many people doing some fantastic art with Lomography and I’m looking forward to find many people I will be inspired by and will look up to.

What are you looking forward to in our Community?

As I said previously, find new artists and people that will connect and see meaning in my work, learning new ways to shoot and finding amazing work that will inspire me, and make me see new ways to use this amazing medium which is Lomography.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us, Caroline! Welcome to the Lomography community and we're looking forward to seeing more of your work!

2018-07-13 #people #lomohome #lomohomes #newcomer #newcomer-of-the-week