I shot one hundred rolls of film this year.
I shot over ninety in 2022. I’m averaging about eight rolls a month. For some film shooters, this is nothing; for others, it’s a shit ton. I would say I’m running on the higher end of things, and it’s catching up to me.
I’ve always worked the expense of shooting film into my budget. Photography is not my paid profession—I have a day job, and the bulk of my photographic work are personal projects. The occasional paid shoot or print sale makes a shallow dent in the cost. And while it often feels like photography is my whole life, there are other things here too. There are things I want to do in the coming years, and I need to save money and pay down debt. After much deliberation, over the course of months, I have decided to embark on a year of radically less spending. And the first thing that comes to mind is film photography.
There are a lot of things I’m already used to spending less money on—clothes and shoes and gadgets and travel—because I allot most of my “extra money” to film photography. But I asked myself, what would a year look like in which I bought nothing I didn’t need, limited or eliminated overnight trips, gave myself a small biweekly allowance for drinks or eating out, and shot substantially less film? Aside from the financial goals I could achieve, I became intrigued by how my processes would be changed. I imagined shopping my own closet for things I never wear. I imagined challenging myself to shoot one roll of film a month (outside of paid shoots).
In the last couple weeks, as I’ve honed in on what this plan would actually look like, a Rolodex of images has flipped through my mind—all the photographs I’ve taken over the last year. I didn’t need to shoot so many rolls of surfing—as it turns out, most of the frames look the same, and the collection of them overall comprises my least exciting work of the year. I started off (with a new haircut) taking a lot of self-portraits but got less focused as the year drew on. And my most favorite images are of rodeos and Barbies, hands down. This look back has helped me prepare to navigate a year of less film and how to best spend those limited rolls.
I don’t think allowing one roll of film per month for my personal projects is realistic or feasible. There are things that require different ISO speeds or color film or black and white. When I was still floating the one-roll idea, a friend asked me, “What if someone gives you a roll?” And I said I would still limit myself to one per month, because I had to develop it too, and if I made one exception for myself, I’d make others. But the more I thought about it, the less this made sense, especially if the original point is to save money, not restrict my creativity.
So in the end, this is what I’ve come up with: I can purchase one roll of film per month for the entire year of 2024, and I can pay to develop one roll per month. I can shoot as much as I have. I can trade for film and for developing. And the very paltry monthly earnings from my Patreon page, which at this moment is about the price to develop one roll of film after my two subscriptions to other artists are deducted, can pay for a second roll developed each month, if I have it. (This in conjunction with the non-photographic expense cutting mentioned above.)
I’ll probably pre-purchase about half of those rolls at one time, to save on shipping, and play it fast and loose with the rest. It’s not as restrictive as limiting myself to shooting one a month, but it will still be far fewer frames than I’m used to, and I’m very interested to see how this change will impact my creative process. I’m excited at the prospect of fine-tuning the projects that I’m truly excited about, and also to explore more mixed-media collaging and video work with my old HandyCam camcorder. And maybe, maybe, maybe, I’ll finally finish my novel.
So in cheers to the year to come, and in honor of the year behind me, here are my top favorite photos of 2023. There are 35 of them. I did not choose a specific number—I just saved the ones that felt like real favorites. They’ll serve as inspiration for the year ahead, and hopefully inspire someone else out there too.
Thank you for reading, you’re beautiful.