It's a Boy!
** Only scroll to the end if you are comfortable with a fairly graphic image of birth**
Recently, over the last few years we have seen the increasing popularity of analogue photo capture. This continued rise of film sales comes from a few different directions, some I have seen first hand whilst working in film camera retail and of course, being primarily a film photographer in my personal work and the weddings you see here. I went fully back to film in 2015, selling all digital cameras aside from my wedding work and from then, pretty much everything I have photographed has been captured on a combination of 35mm, medium format, large format and instant film. I love it. I love the medium, the look, the nature of loading a camera with a physical thing and making pictures by light and chemistry. There are of course a few photographers, particularly in the wedding sector who are jumping on the film bandwagon because it's popular with clients which of course is fine, whatever reason people are choosing to shoot with it is fine with me as it means Kodak and Ilford will continue to manufacture film. Where I do struggle however, is when people talk about film being unpredictable and how you "don't know what you're going to get". Film has been a media for capturing photographs for around a century and it is a proven, consistent, reliable medium for image capture. So much so that I chose it to photograph one of the most important days my partner and I will ever have. the birth of my first born.
Loaded with Ilford HP5, my Canon EOS 1V and EF 35mm f/1.4L were kept above the bed, in my hand, ready to capture that first moment. I didn't know I was having a boy, we left that news a surprise as nowadays there are seemingly no true surprises in life, so we waited the full nine and a half months to find out who was going to come into the world, only settling on a boys name the night before!
So, one of the most important events, captured on film? It's a risk, no? No! I wasn't worried. I know my equipment, I know how to use film and I know that if I do everything right, the images are there. Light on silver, permanent, only showing when chemicals are used to reveal.
And then he was here. 2 frames is all I took at this moment, the one above being the first. The next frame he had his head down. Had I waited, I would have missed it, the moment gone.....but I never doubted the medium. Rendered perfectly, forever, in silver and light.
And before I let you go, let me take a moment to type the appreciation I have for my partner, Vicki. Not only did she carry this mighty, small human for longer than it usually takes, she gave birth to him and continues to raise him with me all whilst working herself and giving constant support following my crazy dream of being a full time photographer. I cannot thank her enough.
Benjamin Owen Morton. 17th January 2023.
