Why I Shoot With Medium Format
Human experience is largely based in our eyesight. For me, being a Highly Sensitive Person, the sensation of vision has captivated my attention for as long as I can remember. The color, shades, tones, & textures of life all appear to my eyes in a vividness & subtle ecstasy impossible to illustrate with words. Naturally, I’ve spent many years attempting to capture the awe-inspiring beauty around me through photography as it is a medium which transcends words & logic. I began like most do with an iPhone: slowly understanding the principles of composition, lighting, shadows, & color of what creates a quality photograph. I progressively understood that the combination of these elements in a specific order creates a unique emotional experience. I desired to dive deeper into the art form beyond the distractions & flat rendering of iPhone photographs to develop a more focused process of creating images with a dedicated camera.
My mother lent me her entry level DSLR full frame camera which guided me into a photographic world of more depth than I was previously aware of. Colors were richer, textures were visible, tones were more subtle, & the play of light & shadow appeared more life like. The gap between what I was seeing with my eyes, & what I was able to communicate with others began to shrink. I enjoyed the increase in image quality for several years. However, as my eyes & skills began to sharpen, so did my drive to mature my design. In comparison to life’s seamless gradations, the images produced with the DSLR proved to be lackluster.
The frustration inspired many months of camera research which brought me to discover the term medium format. In terms of size, it is the system in between popular cameras & those which require a large body, tripod, & cloak that one would use with a large format camera. It is also the only handheld image creating device which produces the closest representation to the 3D world. After deliberating between brands, my heart led me to acquire the Fujifilm medium format system for its painting-like aesthetic. Within the first few shots produced by the camera, I immediately understood I stepped into an advanced realm of photography which I can never unsee.
Finally, I was looking into the photo, enjoying its depth as I do with the natural world, as opposed to merely looking at it. With this, I can share the majesty of what I observe, & display a distance in quality between what I create, & what millions of people are able to snapshot on their mobile phone. With the exponentially improving technology of smartphone lenses, many find camera photography a dying art. But for those who give their attention to an image created from the system I own, that doubting thought is replaced by emotions of awe.
