Going Analog in the American West
Two months travelling with just a Rolleiflex film camera: madness or mistake?
Rolleiflex Camera Images
I take my trusty Fuji GFX with me everywhere I travel.
But in the summer of 2024, I threw caution to the wind and spent two months in the USA without it (oh, the horror).
Instead, I took a Rolleiflex film camera and a Bell & Howell Super8 Cine Camera along to use during my artist residency in a cabin in the Nevada Desert.
I wanted to travel in a way that would proritise analog attention.
The plan was to complete the two week artist residency – make a road trip across Utah and New Mexico – pack the cameras in my backpack – and hike the Colorado Trail with my youngest daughter, Mia.
Cool idea. On paper.
Hikers on the Colorado Trail go lightweight for a reason: lugging two cameras with a tent, equipment, clothes, 3 litres of water, and 4 days of food in a bear barrel almost broke me.
The heavy Bell & Howell Super8 camera went into the trash bin in a toilet on day five.
The Rolleiflex camera hung on until the end of the hike (just).
Shooting film with one fixed lens frustrated me.
Bryce Canyon National Park and Yellowstone National Park - 120 film
Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson - 120 film
I needed the wide lens of my digital camera for the grand desert vistas of Utah. I missed magical moments while loading new film into the Rolleiflex in New Mexico.
Would my films survive the doses of radiation from multiple airport scanners, or the battering they received in the bottom of my backpack day after day?
Would the frustration of shooting film would be justified?
When I got home I did not have the excitement of viewing thousands of digital images on my Mac, posting dozens of images onto Instagram, or pitching high-res images to glossy travel magazines.
I had just a few rolls of film to process.
But, as time passed, the film photographs took on greater resonance than my digital images.
Each photograph is a mystery of intention, light, and place burned onto the film emulsion – “a secret about a secret”, as Diane Arbus once said.
Embracing film photography brought silver linings - no more peeking at what I had shot the week, day, or hour before – leaving me free to enjoy the journey and dwell in the moment.
View from the Cabin at Montello, Nevada - 120 film
My film photography and writing from Nevada will be published in Volume 3 of the Revelry Collection - an new analog magazine from America.
Changing things up can feel risky, but opens up new ways of perceiving, working, and new opportunities.
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Silence and Sagebrush - Alone in a cabin in Nevada
THE SNAPSHOT
Category: Creative Practice & Analog Photography
Theme: Slow Travel, Psychology of Place, Analog immersion
Global Databases: TransArtists, Artist Communities Alliance, ARTRabbit
Locations: USA (Montello Foundation), New Mexico, UtahNicholas Holt is a Creative Director, Sony Award-shortlisted photographer, and writer. He founded Far From to champion atmospheric, and secluded travel. His editorial work has appeared in SUITCASE and the RPS Journal. Explore his commercial portfolio at nicholasholt.co.uk.