Leo Quispe's Happy Accident in New York with the Berlin Kino 400

Not too long ago, Free Film USA held a collaborative photography project of distributing and processing 25 mm film across America for free, with the given photo theme prompt 'red, white and blue'. Along with the partnership of Lomography, those who won from the project were given a roll of the Berlin Kino 400 35 mm film and photographer Leo Quispe was one of the winners. Let's take a look at the portrait of city life in New York while using the film.

Though Leo has always been interested in film photography as his own parents would often bring disposable cameras during their family vacations back in the day, he started his analogue journey rather recently.

Using the Berlin Kino 400 was also a first for him, but he was already excited about how the whites looked from the film's packaging. Leo could not help but think, " Wow, will this film make my camera a time machine?" He used the film to cover his friends in New York -- a mix of things that they passed by, things that looked cool or unique. He also admitted that after he was done shooting the roll, his camera started malfunctioning with the rewind, causing the roll to be exposed to some serious studio lights.

Despite the mishap, he loved how the film was able to jive with his experimental approach in photography. "Happy accidents", as he would describe it:

"But what really surprised me was how durable this film was. even though it was exposed to light it made this roll feel a bit more experimental. yeah, I lost some frames but I don't think my shots wouldn't look the way they are if what happened didn't happen. I'm really happy with the results and glad I have a few more in the fridge."

Frankly, Leo was pleasantly surprised and the whole highlight of his experience with the Berlin Kino 400 would be the accident and getting the scans themselves. Leo also mentioned that his friends loved how the shots also came out.

"I would have to say getting back my scans and negatives from the lab and seeing some of the cool shots I took really pushes me to keep going and seeing my results is kinda just letting me know how I'm progressing as a photographer... I'd say this film would really suit the street photographer and portrait photographer. just cause I can see this roll being Pushed probably +3 stops maybe even more, so its uses are limitless in my opinion."

Next for Leo's analogue journey would be to keep shooting film, and create his first photo book or zine.

Thanks for sharing your memorable analogue story with us, Leo! Delve into the world of black and white photography with the Berlin Kino 400 35 mm film, available at the Online Shop and Gallery Stores.

2020-02-15 #gear #black-and-white-photography #berlin-kino-400 #leo-quispe