Interview with LUCIA PELUFFO, ARGENTINA
Time is very important when shooting with film.
Hello, Lucia. Please tell us something about yourself and how you got into film photography?
Lucia: I'm Lucia Peluffo, and I'm 28 years old. I've made my college studies on Industrial Design, and at the same time I started studying photography (this was about 9 years ago). For the first 5 years I did mostly digital photography. In 2014 I moved to France, already knowing I loved photography probably more than design, so I started a darkroom course because I believed back then that, to be a photographer, I had to at least know more or less how to develop and print... (Also an excuse to meet people in this new country and learn the language... although in the end, a darkroom isn't the best place to make a conversation haha).
In the meantime I started working with a photographer and sharing my portfolio, when I realized I didn't have a voice of my own, that my pictures lacked an identity, so I stopped photographing, or at least that's what I thought.. as I had to develop and print for my course I kept on using only my analogue camera and photographing my everyday life with my boyfriend, but seeing it just as a thing I had to do to have some material to work with... and after 6 months my teacher told me "did you realize that you are talking about your relationship with him? And about your struggle?" (It hadn't been the easiest 6 months so far). And that's how I ended up doing my first main work, titled "We are one. We are two."
What type of film do you use and what camera do you use it with? Why do you prefer these?
Lucia: I normally use Kodak tmax100 or TRIX, with a Nikon f100 and a Sigma Art Series, 50mm.
What do you think film has that digital doesn't have?
Lucia: I'm not a purist about film. For me it is more the process that makes me choose it. I normally like working with my hands, making things (as a designer too, I prefer hands on work than on the computer). I think the fact that you don't see what you take at that moment, the time that it's needed to work, the patience, everything takes part on my process of working crucially, time is very important.
Do you print your own photographs or are you comfortable having them printed in a lab?
Lucia: Since I went back to Argentina, 3 years ago, the first thing I did was to build my own darkroom. I've moved it three times since then! But for me the printing is also very important, probably the part I enjoy the most and that I find more crucial in my process. I believe that while I'm in the darkroom many questions arise and many answers are found.
What motivates you to continue making photographs with film? Have you learned anything about yourself through film photography?
Lucia: As i think I've said before, I found my way of expressing myself, my medium. I could find it with digital, couldn't find the same connection.
Are there any photographers that influenced your way of making pictures?
Lucia: I'm not sure, I think everything leaves an influence, painters, photographers, even designers in my case.
Do you see any value or merit shooting with film?
Lucia: I don't like making a difference of value between film and digital, i think each person chooses the medium that fits them and their process of making.
What do you think your future is like with film photography?
Lucia: What a question! I don't know.. I like trying new things, perfectionist techniques but also questioning and trying it's limits.. I'll be probably doing that? Haha!
Do you have any dream film photography project?
Lucia: No... now I'm making a book where every page is a print I've made, and which won't be limited, just under order. I think that's already quite dreamy and crazy!
Would you like to offer a few words of wisdom to those who want to try film photography for the first time? What must they learn before venturing into this format?
Lucia: I think they should try it to see if the connection with their subject changes when they see through the camera, directly, and don't see the image at that same moment. To try if timing changes their way of making, if in this digital times this pauses and patience make them any difference.
Anything you want to add? Future exhibits, projects you're currently busy with? Anything.
Lucia: I'm making this book, on the series "Isabel", which will probably be presented in September, in New York.. and before that, this august, I'll be doing a solo exhibition on this work too, at Alimentación General, in Buenos Aires.
While planning these two things I'm starting a new project, but usually I take more or less three years until I finish one, so while I'm closing at least a chapter on Isabel, I'm working on this new one... so I don't think anything is clear nor worth showing for the moment!
Keep in touch with Lucia on Instagram and Facebook. You can also catch some of her work on her website. If I were you, I won't miss this one.
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Be considerate. All photographs shown on this page are the sole property of Lucía Peluffo. She devoted her time, and worked so hard in making these photographs. You are not allowed to copy, download, reproduce, reprint, modify, distribute, publicly display, license, transfer or sell content retrieved from this page in any way, for any public or commercial use or to any commercial source, including other websites, without prior written permission of Lucía Peluffo. Be mindful of your actions. You don’t want to go to jail, do you?
Well now, if you are a passionate film photographer and would like to be interviewed? I’d love to hear from you. Send me an email with the subject, "Interview me", and share your story, thoughts, and work related to film photography. I’ll get back to you as soon as I receive your request for an interview.
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Cheers!
Mel