Lomography’s International Cookbook of Film Soups & Recipes (Part III)

Our global film recipe cookbook keeps growing as more experimental experts across the world share their special concoctions with Lomography. Film soups do not only make your photographs more special, but they are also creative routine breakers. Check out these contributed recipes from our analogue friends.

Daisy Wong's Alcohol & Milk Tea Liquid Experiments

Photographer Daisy Wong is among the first to develop and produce the first Hong Kong-manufactured film, and like the innovator that she is, she formed two special film recipes that use two ingredients that are important to her. Her recipes with Hong Kong milk tea and sanitizer-and-milk a roll of Lomography Color Negative 400 and LomoChrome Purple respectively. For the milk tea recipe, she photographed the streets and graffiti found in Hong Kong, as milk tea has become one of the representatives of the urban culture. Meanwhile, the sanitizer-and-milk recipe represents how the disinfectant has become ingrained in her daily life.

The photographs on the first row came from the Hong Kong milk tea recipe, majorly showing a cool yellow overtone and overall pastel-like palette. The sanitizer-and-milk recipe with the LomoChrome Purple is ruddier and rosier, transforming the usual cool purple into richer and warmer berry hues.

Toilet Lab's Fantasy Experiments with Tom Yum Kung and Roselle Juice

The fellas at Toilet Lab, a Bangkok-based film lab that is known for its expert processing on experimental analogue projects, came up with a truly delectable film soup recipe. The lab aimed to create dreamlike film soup recipes for the LomoChrome Purple and LomoChrome Metropolis. For the LomoChrome Purple, they used creamy tom yung kung with lemon. They boiled the film in water before soaking it in the soup. For the LomoChrome Metropolis, they used roselle juice mixed with jujube, with lime.

True to their word, Toilet Lab achieved some fantasy-looking photographs from the recipes. The set on the left with the LomoChrome Purple showcase cool blue film burns around the edges. The set on the right with the LomoChrome Metropolis has more of the blue leaks seeping through while retaining the entire composition.

Film Soak Special: Spring Almond Blossoms by Hanalogital

Lomographer hanalogital is on the mission to create more seasonal film soups this year (she did a winter film soup just last year!), for springtime, she collected several almond blossoms from trees. For 24 hours, she let the unexposed color negative roll get soaked in leaves, buds, flowers, pine cones, stones, sand, small branches, etc. with hot water and then rinsed them with cold water.

The spirit of springtime is reflected in hanalogital's photos as the color negative film is drenched with a cherry-pink overtone, with faded yellow-green borders that make the photos look very floral. Visit this article for hanalogital's full recipe.

Caroll Nox Atra's Versailles Film Soup

Surreal romanticism is part of the aesthetic of photographer Caroll Nox Atra. The artist recently made a recipe inspired by the baroque influences of the Versailles, and thus the name The Versailles Film Soup. The photographer infused the ingredients found in the park of Versailles first (wood, dead leaves, lichen, sheep's wool), and then in a separate bowl, she mixed ivy, chestnuts, Himalayan salt, lavender, carnations, lime and devil's turnip (a toxic ingredient!) with the Lomography Color Negative 400. She then poured the first mix into the second, and let it sit for 20 minutes.

Attention! When getting your soaked films developed, inform your film laboratories about the film soup or recipe to ensure that the chemistry of your experimented films won't be compromised.

Want more creative film soup guides? Read our first and second editions of film soups and recipes on our Magazine.

written by cielsan on 2021-05-16