Scenes, Volume 6

Sixth entry in an analog photography feature at Noise Floor.

Like many things in our current quasi-post-pandemic world, the shape of this recurring feature has not remained so rigid and straightforward as I might have initially envisioned. Indeed, I’m pretty behind on compiling the grainy frames of live music I’ve managed to capture over the past few months, which have found themselves scattered across a stack of different film stocks run through an ever-expanding range of sometimes partially-functioning vintage cameras. The collection that sits before you now is a particularly ramshackle assortment.

I loaded this roll into my Mercury half-frame way back in August, wound it back into the canister too early, extracted the film leader and re-loaded it at some point in September, and finally finished it off at some point in October. And to make matters even more…interesting, we’re talking consumer-grade 800 speed Kodak Ultramax that expired well over a decade ago here. Fast film decays faster, and I have not a clue how this eBay lot was stored, so I was running a number of risks in relying on film of that particular pedigree for forty-something frames. The results, though, are neat in a sort of catastrophic way I think. There are some accidental double exposures, some questionable focus choices and a industrial-strength helping of grain. They perhaps run up against the boundaries of legibility in places. It’s probably not a process I’ll repeat (this same camera currently has a roll of fresh, responsibly stored Delta 3200 in it for shows), but it’s certainly a late summer/early autumn trip. Scroll down for scenes from gigs ranging from Speedy Ortiz outdoors at ONCE to Nothing, Osees, Faye Webster, Black MIDI and Caspian at The Sinclair and what I think is a pretty funny juxtaposition of Damien Jurado and Blood Incantation.