WORDS Anna Lowder
Indie Film Lab is one of the most respected film labs in the US and is resurrecting the new breed of the (almost) lost art of film. Based in Montgomery, meet the photographers and artists in demand by film professionals throughout the country as we celebrate the craftspeople right at our back door.
Q&A with Josh Moates, founder Indie Film Lab
What do you love about film?
There are so many things: One is the type of cameras you can use that give the photographer different experiences, from twin lens reflex where you look down to rangefinders where you focus with two images. There are so many interesting ways to shoot film. The look of film is another aspect. There is so much more character with film: you have many varieties of black & white film - some with grain, others absolutely smooth. A company like Fuji makes a 400H film that is super soft and pastel, whereas Kodak is really warm and makes bolder film. It’s much broader than a digital camera with just a chip.
The photographer has a level of control over the artistic experience through both the film and the process of developing film. With a chip it’s just a click and maybe Photoshop. With film it’s a medium actually in the camera, it’s tangible, that you as the photographer are controlling and creating.
Where do you look for visual or intellectual inspiration?
I love to capture people in their own element - stylized, artistic shots of subjects enjoying what they do. Professionally, I shoot mostly weddings and portraits - in a very simple style that comes across as truthful documentation.
My real passion is a fine art approach to capturing my favorite subject: Home. In everything that can mean - what encapsulates home to me. So that can be where I lived, places that evoke a memory of riding my bike down the street as a child, a neighbor’s house I used to know.
Basically my artistic work is a photo journal of where I have lived. Nothing deeper than that - places that I’ve known as home. When I was on tour for a few years in a band it sat heavy on me and I missed home.
I love to shoot people that I have a personal connection with too. One of my favorite guys is an older farmer at Floyd’s Produce. Another guy who passed away last year at 90, his name was Buck. He played trumpet at Sous La Terre from 2-6am, then went to church straight after to play trumpet again. He had me beat by a mile. I had to shoot him in Sous La Terre. I was there every Saturday night for a period of my life and I got this one fantastic shot of him. His story still fascinates me. I’m super sentimental that way.
What’s your go-to camera?
The Hasselblad H-1 for weddings, but for convenience my Leica M6 is great because it’s small, light weight, and not intimidating to others. Paired with B&W 35mm film - it’s classic.
What’s your first memory of shooting film?
In high school, it was an art class. I would take pictures of people and paint from the images, but the paintings sucked and the photos were cool. The photos were just a tool - taking pictures of my peers in class - but looking back on them after college, it hit me “Oh I can actually do this and make a living from it.”
How did you grow from shooting to development?
In 2011, I would shoot film for weddings and send them off to California and it would cost $100 a pop. So I thought, “Well, I could invest money into a serious scanner of my own, then I can afford to shoot more film and get a better outcome.” So when I started posting images of my scans on Facebook to a group called Film Shooters, people were asking “Who did these - who is your lab?” and I was able to say “I’m my own lab.”
So that’s how Indie Film Lab came into being?
Essentially yes. I began hiring people to help with the processing - development and scanning.
How did the word get out about Indie - regionally then nationally?
It was through Film Shooters. I’d post some things on social media and people would comment and share, and the word of mouth just grew. In the film world today there are only three or four labs doing this in the US - that care and take the time to put effort into film. People that shoot film now really care about what their images look like. Film forces you to slow down, to really take your time. It’s not like snap - snap - snap. It’s slow down everything, get the one right shot. All they do is photography - not multi-tasking ten different things. I relate to some of these photographers specifically. These are the artists we tend to work with over and over. My life is photography. That’s how I see the world now - everything’s composition and photography. So we have to be a serious lab, and that’s what our customers respect about us. There are two well-known labs in California, and then there is Indie. That’s it really. So the costs of operating a business in Alabama work to our advantage in that we can be a little more competitive on price that someone in California, and turn out a great product for the photographer.
How did you find the talent locally to grow with demand?
Talent - it’s very tough and we’ve been very lucky. Allen was our first employee - his background was at a lab. Nick, Luke, Matt, Jon - all are photographers that deal with color correction and scanning, which is really important to getting a quality end product.
It’s worked to our advantage so far because we keep sucking people in who are interested in the art of photography. I’m finding out there are more people in this area that are into photography and film than I first thought. They are hidden out, and maybe not connected to each other at first, but I think Indie helps bring these people together. Creativity breeds creativity.
Where do your clients come from today?
Throughout the country, largely due to the internet, social media, and word of mouth. We’ve done no advertising. There is an online show coming out called “Film” (Season 2) on the Framed Network. Anyone into photography stays up on this show. So this season Indie Film Lab is the main lab sponsor which gives us great coverage to a broad network. When we were in Las Vegas this year we got to join in the wrap up party and hang out with everyone. Things like this show we’re part of the larger community and in it for the craft.
What’s a day at Indie Film Lab look like?
We’re a really tight knit group of buddies. It’s laid back in the way we interact with each other, but very serious when it comes to the work. The same anywhere else in an artistic field. We have a total of eight full time employees and four industry scanners.
We’ve grown to a point that’s comfortable and I’m not stressed everyday about what is or isn’t happening.
You’ve expanded into offering prints as well?
Yes, we now offer matte paper prints. My favorite paper is Hahnemühle paper. They’ve been around for 400 years making paper. It’s a beautiful soft cotton photo rag paper, the ink is actually in the paper rather than on top. It’s stunning.
So we get the feeling you love Kodak. What is it that you love about Kodak film, beyond the fact that it’s been around since 1889?
Kodak is my favorite. I’ve been shooting it for so long it’s just second nature to me now. I never could get Fuji to look right for me - the light is different in California, where it works well. The light here in Alabama has always worked for me with Kodak - the colors turn out exactly as I see things in my mind’s eye.
Kodak has a B&W film called TRI-X, a classic film that’s been around for years and years. If I dressed someone up in 1940s attire and shot with this, we would not be able to tell when that photo was taken. It has a gorgeous authenticity to it.
In 2010 Kodak invested in R&D for one new film stock based on their movie film technology, and mixed it into their professional photography film. I respect the time and investment that took to create a new, improved product. People are digging it. Its film division has seen a 20% profit.
Tell us about your Workshops with Ryan Muirhead or Artifact Uprising.
Ryan is one of the most talented, creative people I’ve known. I respect him immensely. He and I were talking this Spring about what to do next (teaching, classes, shows) and I said “Look, we’ll pick you up in Vegas and on the drive back we’ll come up with something.” So what came out of it is The Missing Frame Workshop. It’s about the tangible. The companies that are on board with this are getting back into the hand-crafted movement. So you’ve got companies making wood shutter release buttons, real cotton paper, new types of film, books, so on. It’s about getting real things into people’s hands. It’s a two day workshop - hopefully in situ (maybe a unique house, outdoor spaces, etc) where we have time and space to focus on technique in Ryan’s stripped-down, slowed-down world.
Tell us of a photographer whose work you admire?
Henri Cartier Bresson is one of the greatest influences on my work. He’s the founder of what many call the modern photojournalism. He was one of the first to use 35mm film, and his thoughts in “The Decisive Moment” are monumental. What he captured with light and shadow is beautiful.
How do you see the rebirth of film and print progressing from this point?
I feel there is a segment of people who are now focused on caring about process and the experiential. We’re coming to a crux where a large enough group understands faster is not always better. Just because a digital camera can take and store thousands of pictures, it’s not necessarily better. For me, and many like me, film is better. For photographers who insist on highlights, shadows, composition, color - film is the medium of choice and will continue to be.
These may be the same people that will pick up a Garden & Gun, or a real newspaper. It may be that time is becoming the ultimate luxury, or the most important commodity. And things - whether it’s film, or growing food, or making crafts - that take time will become more appreciated by a specific type of person into the future.
Photographers - true photographers - will continue to come over to film. And since it’s serious, it may always be seen as more valuable. What we’re promoting is tangible, good products and experiences. I shoot film because I care and finally I can relate to others like me who take their art and work very seriously. I see Indie continuing to strengthen, and maybe we’ll be one of two labs left in the US. But we’re here in Montgomery and have no need or plan to change that. This is where I live. It’s my home.
Follow Indie Film Lab on Facebook or at indiefilmlab.com
Indie Film Lab is located in Montgomery at The A&P in Old Cloverdale.
Ryan Muirhead’s The Missing Frame Workshop
When: July 21-22, 2013
Where: Montgomery