The Whole Roll (x2): Fomapan 400 & Kodak Tri-X, April 2024

Sometimes I can complete a roll quickly, sometimes it’s a painstaking process; a few exposures here and there even though I want to try and pressure myself and accomplish more. I recently shot the first few frames of a roll across a few days, followed by the remainder, and a full following roll within the space of a few hours. Both of these rolls went through my Leica M2, with a 50mm lens. The first is a roll of Fomapan 400, developed at 1+50 in Rodinal for 11 minutes, and the second is Kodak Tri-X, stand developed for an hour. Both rolls were exposed at EI400.

Fomapan 400

The first image on this roll is a portrait, made in a local community space near where I live during an open community event.

Then, a few days later, just a single image to show for half a day in Central London doing street photography.

The third I’ve redacted because it was an image of my desk at home, and has personal information visible. The next six frames were shot in Southall during their Vaisakhi celebration. I’ve photographed this procession a few times now, and I wasn’t seeing much I don’t already have a half decent photograph of. In the past I’ve been able to shoot multiple rolls at this event, but this time I left with only that handful of frames – and I think you can tell that I was trying to force things to work that just didn’t.

A day or so later, two images of a tent set up in a corner of Wanstead Flats during a early morning walk.

From Wanstead Flats I went to Green Street where preparations for an Eid celebration were ongoing, with street vendors, and a huge number of mehndi (henna) stalls lining the edges of the pavement. I took another six frames here, the last two of which were of a scene I pass by regularly but had never bothered to capture until now.

After this, and until the end of this roll and the next, are a documentation of the morning Eid prayers in Little Ilford Park, which saw hundreds of local Muslims gather together in worship and celebration for the holiday.

Kodak Tri-X

After reloading, some of the prayer tarpaulin settings and sound systems were being packed away, which are the first few frames of this roll.

Then three portraits of a lovely guy who I was speaking with for a bit. The first one worked out the best, and the final one he blinked which is annoying, but I’m glad I tried some different things even though I did basically get it on the first try.

A second community started their prayer after the conclusion of the first, and I took a few images of this before they finished, and I moved onto more general community documentation.

Thanks for reading! I am down to my final few copies of the works I released over Winter 2023, which are available for purchase here. You can follow me on Instagram.

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