Prints | Bryan Formhals

Sometime in the sumer of 2007 I decided to spend my 31st birthday in New York City. My 30th birthday in Los Angeles was rather mellow so I figured I’d use some vacation days and make a fall trip to hang out with some friends and see the city. My friend Raoul Gatepin was living in Carroll Gardens at the time and let me crash with him for a few days. It was shaping up to be an eventful visit because a few other photographer friends were flying in from around the world as well, including Hin Chua, Naveen Jamal, and my Los Angeles friend Ludmilla Morais. In fact, this small group, along with a few other NY and English friends had hatched a plan to build a new photography collective and this was to be our first meeting. We’d been working on the logistics for sometime over email but felt it was necessary to really solidify things in person and New York seemed like a perfect meeting ground.

But before we got down to business we went out and had fun. The first night we all met at The Cherry Tavern in the East Village. It was the first night that many of us had actually met each other in person and several other New York photographers that we’d met online also came out for the night. It was all Tecate, Tequila, laughs and bursts from flashes. I recall sitting in a booth loading up my last roll of film which was a roll of Neopan 1600. I had to ask Raoul how I should shoot it with the flash. In front of me where between 6-8 rolls cashed rolls, I can’t recall exactly at this point.

The next day, despite rather severe hang overs we trekked into Chelsea to check out a few shows. It was a grey, cloudy day. Rain was imminent. With us was my friend Barbara, a writer I’d met at a job in Los Angeles. She was in New York for grad school and decided to come out with us to look at some photography. We were leaving Chelsea to head to a Lars Tunbjork show in Midtown when it started to sprinkle. Barbara and I were walking and chatting ahead of the group, when I spotted a girl on a cell phone carrying an umbrella heading toward us. I had my XA on me and figure it was worth a shot. But since it was rather cloudy I wasn’t exactly sure about the f-stop, and I’m not sure that I even attempted the adjust it as she continued toward us. As we passed I snapped off a frame. Click, click. I knew that sound, the slow shutter. I knew the photograph would probably be blurry, but I didn’t think much of it.

“I just made a picture there,” I said to Barbara.

“Oh yeah. Was it any good?” she replied.

I chuckled. ”I have no idea, it’s film.”

Digital C-PRINT on BW Paper
Print Size: 10″ X 13″ – Edition of 25 at $35 each plus shipping.
Included with the print will be a signed and dated copy of the above text, printed on high quality paper.

La Cienega Blvd, West Hollywod, Calif – 2007-2008

It was a Sunday and I remember it was quiet as I approached La Cienega. There wasn’t much foot traffic as most of the shops were closed which allowed me more freedom to peek through the windows in search of interesting juxtapositions. I’ve always been enamored with reflections in shops because of the natural collages they often create, or maybe I’ve looked at too many Lee Friedlander photographs. I remember the photographs weren’t coming to me on that day, which happened to be hot as hell. Near the end of my walk I arrived at a shop that had these red curtains that were directly in the sun’s spotlight. But the sun was at such an angle that only the bottom half was illuminated. Above them, almost perfectly split across the window was a reflection of a palm tree and telephone pole. I busted off a few frames, and then went on my way.

I’d finished off the eight rolls of Kodachrome I’d purchased and sent them off to Dwayne’s for processing. Buying Kodachrome was completely unnecessary, but nostalgia can be persuasive. Days went by and it only seemed to get hotter. I walked around Hollywood photographing as the electric sunshine beat down on me while Jimi Hendrix blasted from my iPod. Nostalgia seemed to be built into my Los Angeles experience. Then one day the slides came back from Dwayne’s. I’d purchased a small slide viewer, and went through all the rolls. I lost my objectivity and became completely fascinated by the experience. When I came across the frames from that Sunday on La Cienega I remember getting agitated with myself for making multiple frames because I wasn’t able to make a choice. I finally did but never shared the photograph on the web.

On the day that Kodak announced they were discontinuing Kodachrome I posted this photograph on Flickr as a salute. Since then its been apart of ‘The Electric Sunshine Velocity Trip’ series.

Digital C-PRINT
Print Size: 8.5″ X 11″ – Edition of 25 at $35 each plus shipping.
Included with the print will be a signed and dated copy of the above text, printed on high quality paper.

I’ll be posting more prints in the future as well. Thanks.

Print: Umbrella Girl in Chelsea

Print: La Cienega Red Blue Palm in Kodachrome