The above images are all shot on 35mm film with a $40 Canon SLR camera bought off eBay in 2018.

That summer I studied in Valencia, California at the California State Summer School for the Arts, I was 16 and, at the time, wasn’t sure about photography. I had applied to the school to paint, and to be surrounded by kids that felt art in the same way I did.

It was this summer that I dove headfirst into film photography: learning to develop, format, and scan the analog way. It was the first time I felt serious about any career path, and photography since then has taken me in a number of directions. I will always be grateful for that opportunity and the trust those educators gave to a bunch of weird kids and a ton of basement lab chemicals.

The above black and white images were originally hand processed and printed, but the digital scans you see now are from a rickety at home film scanner I probably bought off eBay. I guess the moral of this story is that you really can pick up any hobby with an eBay login and a high school savings account.

Since then, I have waded in and out of film photography, and it will always hold special place in my heart as the moment I truly fell in love with the craft.