One camera. One lens. One film stock. One weekend.

In November 2025, I spent a weekend in New York City working with a Leica M6, a Voigtlander 35mm lens, and Kentmere Pan 400. No backups. No alternatives. Just a small set of decisions made repeatedly, in real time.

The goal wasn’t efficiency or coverage. It wasn’t to test equipment or chase a particular look. It was to see what happens when choice is reduced and commitment becomes part of the process—when each frame carries a little more weight.

What follows is an edited record of that weekend. Incomplete by design. Focused less on outcomes than on attention, judgment, and the act of showing up with a single set of tools and seeing it through.

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Pinhole photography changes the way I understand a scene. It doesn’t respond to quick movement the way I do. It pays attention on a slower scale.

If something is only in the frame for a moment — a person walking through, water shifting, a small burst of motion — it may not show up at all. It was there, but not long enough to register. The photograph reflects what stayed, not what passed through.

The pier does.

The pilings do.

The light does.

I’ve started to think of it as a kind of time filter. Not a judgment about what’s important, but a simple measure of what holds its place long enough to leave a mark. In that sense, the camera behaves a little like a tree might: aware of movement, but responding mainly to what endures.

This changes how I look while I’m making the picture. I stop focusing on brief events and start noticing the structure underneath them — the parts of the world that don’t move much, or don’t move at all. When motion does appear, it shows up as a soft trace instead of a crisp detail. It becomes part of the atmosphere rather than the subject.

Pinhole photography reminds me that a scene is made of both kinds of things: what lasts and what doesn’t. The photograph simply shows me which is which.

Volume 3 of the Why Film Project zine series is all about pinhole photography.

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Some photo projects take months to shape. Others just appear.

This one began when I left my digital camera behind and carried only a Rolleicord III and two rolls of Kodak Ektar into the bright, humid afternoon at Hemingway’s home in Key West. One hour, twenty-four frames, and no second chances. The camera was seventy years old, the film slow, the light uneven—but that combination of trust and uncertainty felt right.

Every shot demanded focus, literally. I read the light with a handheld meter, set exposure, and found sharpness through a dim waist-level finder before my feline subjects wandered off. The cats chose the moments; I just tried to keep up. That tension between precision and instinct is what I love most about film.

When I saw the results, they were everything I’d hoped for and come to expect from Kodak Ektar in medium format—rich color, strong light, and a cohesion that comes from working within limits. Each frame feels both deliberate and unpredictable, shaped as much by circumstance as by intent.

Why Film Project, Volume 2 is now available.

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BUT, a project like this deserves to be held in hand, not just seen on a screen. If you like what you see and want to add the real ‘zine to your library,

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keywords:

film photography, analog photography, medium format, Kodak Ektar 100, Rolleicord, Hemingway House, Key West, creative process, photo zine, Why Film Project, artistic discipline, photography projects

Drafted with input from ChatGPT

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I’m still experimenting with the ‘zine series concept, but already have Volumes 2 and 3 ready to drop. They will be out in 2025, for sure.

I hope you enjoy my work.

Here’s a glimpse of one answer. I won’t start at the beginning in this case – it was Sunday May 4, 2025, the day after Leica Camera’s 100^th Anniversary celebration in New York, NY (NYC). After breakfast (a huge pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese, smoked salmon, red onion, and avocado at Esse Bagel) and before my 11:00 check out time, I was assembling my things to prepare for the bus trip back to Virginia. My view from from 406 of the Heritage Hotel, a not-so-gleaming 2-star hotel on 25^th Street between 5^th and 6^th Avenues afforded just the coolest view of the Empire State Building. I grabbed my 2022 Leica M6 Reissue camera loaded with Ilford HP5 (iso 400) black & white film, 35mm Summicron ASPH lens mounted, and made this shot. I knew it would be one of my favorites from the trip. If I’d made the same shot, even with the same lens mounted on my perfectly nice digital Leica body, it just would not have been the same. I know that about myself. The fact that it took a leap of faith, some wet-hands time in the darkroom to develop the film, and a slow scanning process only added to the value for me.

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I have many great memories from the Leica celebration. I felt that I was part of photographic history just by being there. I met up with several old friends, if only briefly, including Tom Smith of Leica, David Knoble who is the President of Leica Society International (I’m a long-time member), and Dan Tamarkin who is the Leica man in Chicago...

I also met someone I knew of but had not yet met in person – Louis Mendes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Mendes). Mr. Mendes is known for walking the streets of NYC with his Graflex 4x5 camera, shooting portraits of and for tourists. Yes, I bought an instant portrait from Louis, which I treasure. And I got to photograph Louis myself with my 1932 Leica II and date-matched 50mm Elmar f/3.5 collapsible lens on Ilford PanF (iso 50) film. That’s also a memorable Leica and film photography experience.

In closing, there was a lot to love about this trip. I go to NYC every chance I get. I love shooting film Leicas in one of street photography’s true original locations. I love getting food that’s impossible to run down at home. I can feel the NYC streets right now as I recount the trip. I hope you get a bit of a feel for it yourself. And I hope my ‘zine will deepen the experience for you just a little more.

Here are a couple of additional shots, both with the Leica M6 and HP5, that bring me back to the NYC streets in my mind.

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2025 marks the 100th year of Leica Camera. I got to celebrate with Leica and my fellow fans in NYC in May, documenting the experience on film with Leica cameras dating from 1932-2022!

Click Here to order your hardcopy (real ‘zine) or pdf. This is the inaugural Volume 1 for the Why Film? project.

Enjoy, and please follow the project to get all the latest editions as they come out.

Drop me an email at whyfilmproject@gmail.com. Let’s chat about analog photography!

The Hardest Post, The First Post

Why this, why now, why film

Film photography just turns me on. Just like Keanu tries to explain to Elon when arguing over AI versus human connection, I find that film photography connects me to the world in a way that digital does not, or at least not very often.

Many times when I’m out with a film camera, people approach me. Anything from “My dad had one of those.” to “Can you still get film?” is on their mind. Every once in a while some insightful person will ask “But Why Film?” That’s when things get interesting. And I don’t always have a good answer. I hope to develop and share answers to that question here. And I hope you’ll join me and help me to better answer it!

The Why Film Community

If you love images, love cameras (of any type), love expressing yourself visually, then please subscribe!

The Plan, Such As It Is

My plan is to shoot, develop, and share a lot of film photography with you. I am just getting started making ‘zines and plan to publish a series of issues that will each answer Why Film? from different perspectives.

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