Our interviews continue with Reinis Traidas:
golden glow
please introduce yourself. what is “your style” of photography? My name is Reinis Traidas, I’m an emerging cinematographer. I would like to think that I don’t have a particular style – I look at things around me and try to pick up ideas floating in space. Sometimes I just “scan” the world around me through the viewfinder until I find something interesting. I would like to do more street style photography and take pictures of odd people in different odd places, but I am too shy for that. I guess my style is more opportunistic than anything else. I also like contrast – not only in lighting but in terms scope or size as-well. Contrast between things in frame.
how long have you been shooting film? I have been shooting film for almost 2 years now. It started with a Lomo LC-A camera I bought from a guy in Ukraine. I cross-processed my first roll of film. Cross-processing was very trendy back then.
take me home
do you prefer colour or black & white? do you have a favourite film or camera? As much as I love black & white photography, I prefer colour stock. Mostly because I come from a digital background, so I find that the way film emulsion treats colour is amazing and incomparible to digital. However, there is place for both in the world. Also because shooting colour is, I think, more difficult both in exposing and scanning or printing. My favourite film has to be Kodak Portra 800. It’s versatile, very saturated and fast. It’s the perfect film for street photography. It’s subtle grain just adds to the sharpness and the grittiness of the image. For black & white I almost always go with Fuji Acros 100.
exit
show us one of your favourite shots and tell us a bit about it, how did you take it and is there a story behind it? has to be this. This was one of those moments of opportunity that just presented itself. I was wandering through Melbourne’s CBD with the intent of exposing some film and came accross a wall which I thought was remarkable. A pedestrian walked in frame and I was able to feel the scale better. While I was mucking about with the camera, the man with the child almost walked too far away. This was one of those spontaneous ideas for a picture, it came out of nowhere for an opportunity that lasted maybe 4 seconds.
an untitled photo by supacrush.
show us a favourite shot from the MSM pool. What do you enjoy in other peoples’ photos? Look, asking somebody about their favourite photograph is like asking a musician his favourite song. There just isn’t one – there are too many and it’s impossible to pick one. There are hundreds of spectacular photographs in the pool. Sure, there are repeating themes or styles, but each shot should be attempted to be seen in the context of it’s author and his individual style. Therefore I’ll just pick a current one that I like to make a point. What I admire in this picture is the simplicity. There is some mystical power about this type of forceful neutrality and dead-on approach in portrait photography. Even if this was possibly a different case, I admire photographers who have the courage to approach other people on the street and photograph them. I find it really difficult and every time I see it done, I gather a tiny bit of inspiration.
sunny rainy day
is there something that motivates and inspires you in particular with your photography? Yes. Change of perspective inspires me. Like many people, I find creativity through constantly wiping everything I know and by forcing myself to learn everything over again. I force limitations upon myself and through this kind of struggle I can absorb much more inspiration and find new ideas. Sometimes it means changing the camera or the format, sometimes it means trying out a different technique with looking, focusing, exposing, developing or scanning. The most important thing is to keep changing and not sticking to one style for too long.
Question for the next interviewee? What is it that you like about shooting film, as opposed to digital, apart from technical reasons such as latitude, etc.?
Thanks for your tine, Reinis! You can see his work on flickr as reinn, and will be able to see his work up on the wall at UNSENSORED09.
