Light is Light from Philip Evans on Vimeo.
“Light is Light” is the result of a long period of collecting various images and filming with numerous skaters using a variety of cameras in a few different locations.
Namely the Lomokino camera, Canon’s 1014 and 310 xl Super 8 cameras and Lumix’s GF1 and GH2 cameras in (mainly) Dublin, Stockholm, Malmo and also the storm drain ditches of downtown LA.
I was fortunate enough to be supported in my analogue endeavours by the kind people at Lomography who not only sent me their Lomokino camera but also a whole load of film which they even processed for me – can’t ask for nicer than that so a shout out is long overdue, cheers dudes!!
I was quite surprised and stoked on the results from this camera – it basically produced what is probably the polar opposite of a High Definition moving image. As it shoots across regular 35mm film cranked in front of a plastic lens, it produces an often unpredictable abstract series of images. As it is a physical format it is also open to further stages of manipulation before it even gets to the editing stage, so much experimentation was done with the lomo viewer, lights, filters and lenses. When these images were combined with HD footage alone it seemed like too much of a contrast, but the addition of good ol’ grainy Super 8 footage seemed to be a bridge between the two contrasting formats to give the edit you see above.
I love shooting skating and the context it occurs in and I guess that’s the main thing I’m trying to get across with work like this, I really, really, thoroughly enjoy it and I feel lucky to get to do it…but if I am to make a point its this: I don’t think any one format is superior over the other, they all have their merits and different connotations, whether it is the tried and tested mini DV set-up of the VX1000/Mark 1 fisheye combo, the ultra HD – RED camera, nostalgic VHS, Super 8, 16mm, iphone…or whatever, they are all just different formats and different tools. With tools used in creative expression or documentation it is far more to do with how you use them and the ideas behind your creations rather than a pissing contest of who has the latest/greatest/trendiest camera set-ups. I personally like to explore as many camera (and illustration) formats as possible, hence I listed off the technicalities above, but at the end of the day the main motivation always just comes from the genuine stoke I get from putting this stuff together. So thanks as always to the skaters who were down to film and let me do my thing -in order of appearance: Brian Corscaden, Fogo, Rob Moss, David Stenstrom, Al Collins, Martin O Grady, Daniel Stankovic and Phil Zwijsen, cheers lads!
