Trippy & Temporal with Jasmine Ashley-Locke and the Diana F+
4 Share TweetPhoto North Festvial is an annual photography festival which includes exhibitions and talks that celebrate a diverse and wide-range of emerging and established artists. They also run yearly Photo North Student competition. In 2023 Jasmine Ashley-Locke was awarded first prize for her contribution "When Sea Becomes Sky". We sent Jasmine a Diana F+ and some rolls of LomoChrome Color ’92 120 ISO 400 & Lady Grey B&W 120 ISO 400 film to try out and talked to her about her personal journey into photography.
Hello Jasmine, please tell us a bit about yourself.
Hey! I’m a 21-year-old Bristol-based photographer, studying for a BA in Photography at the University of the West of England. My practice sits on the border between truth and fiction, using a narrative, symbolic approach to explore relationships between place and imagination. I frequently return to ideas of absent-presence, human experience within the elements, memory, and time. I’m currently in the early stages of a project which explores the concept of humanity’s hubris as our environmental downfall. Drawing from a growing interest in ecological anthropology and philosophy, I’ve been taking to the landscape using ancient stories as a way to consider humans’ treatment of the land, considering concepts such as cyclicality and ritual.
What got you into shooting with film and why do you enjoy it?
I first felt the draw of analogue compared to digital when looking at my family archive and being able to hold the negatives of photos that I’ve grown up looking at. Objects are imbued with history and meaning, so the materiality and sense of permanence that comes from film creates a feeling that digital can’t replicate.
I also think that growing up in a digital era has caused my generation of photographers to really value analogue as a more embodied way of working because of its slow pace. Because I take an instinctual approach to shooting and am usually trying to represent somewhat intangible ideas, I find that the lack of immediate feedback with analogue allows me to feel more connected to what I'm shooting.
How did you get on shooting with the Diana F+ 120 camera?
I found the Diana F+ really fun to use! Because I knew there would be unexpected results, I allowed myself to forget about the aesthetic output and solely used the camera in response to how the landscapes made me feel. I like constructing open-ended narratives in my work, so I enjoyed the anomalies that the Diana F+ caused, as they created an other-worldly, surreal feeling. I think that the constraints of the camera, like a limited number of shots and simple settings, actually allow you to be freer because it allows you to focus on each subject without having to make technical decisions.
What did you choose to shoot and how did you find the results?
I decided to use the roll of LomoChrome Color ‘92 to explore potential shoot locations for my current project. I wasn’t sure how the results would turn out as one of the shoot days ended up being quite cloudy and dark, but I think the gloominess gives the photos a beautifully atmospheric quality. The double exposure of the lighthouse is one of my favourites, as well as the diptych of the bay.
When shooting with the Lady Grey 400, I thought it would be interesting to explore the area of St Werbergs city farm in Bristol where there is a community focused on strengthening people’s connection to the land. Whilst shooting, I was considering the presence of man-made structures and the tension between them and the environment. I love the eeriness of the results, the distortions and blurs creating a trippy sense of movement. I also really enjoyed playing around with creating pairings to see how different photos interacted, and like how the overlapping frames create a sense of continuing temporality.
What would be your tips for anyone wanting to try out film photography?
Don’t be afraid of making mistakes and embrace them when they inevitably happen; anomalies are usually able to convey something that wouldn’t be possible with a technically
perfect image. Chase the process, not the outcome.
To see more of Jasmine's work visit her Instagram page. Visit the Photo North Festival website to book tickets for their 2024 show, which runs from April 12th - 14th.
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