Guy Pinhas on His Thought-Provoking Art & The Captivating Process of Film Photography

Taking inspiration from science fiction and silent movies, Guy Pinhas' photography captures structures and daily occurrences in an abstract and curious fashion. Through unusual angles and carefully considered use of light and shadows, each eye-catching image seemingly tells a story, or at least reveals a clue.

We recently had a chat with Guy where he talked to us about the themes and inspirations behind his style, how he creates these ambiguous and intriguing photos, and more.

Hi, Guy! Welcome to the magazine. Can you start by telling us about yourself? How and when did you discover film photography?

I was born and raised in France, lived in The Netherlands, then in the US and back in The Netherlands where I currently live, Amsterdam to be precise. From my late teens until 10-15 years ago I was busy with music. I played bass in bands such as Goatsnake, Acid King, The Obsessed, and worked at record labels and record stores. Stopping playing music wasn’t a conscious decision, it wasn’t like “I’m done!” it was more like I felt that I had accomplished what I wanted and a new “artistic outlet” was already in the making, photography. I’m still working for a label though, Southern Lord Europe. Old habits die hard.

But, what really motivated me to pick up a camera? About the time I wound down the live music thing, a friend from the US was visiting pretty often and he always had a film camera with him. His images were striking and it kind of got me thinking. So with his advice, I bought a camera, he showed me how to self develop, scan etc. and as they say, the rest is history.

I didn’t discover film photography, it’s always been around me. When I was a kid we had a Rollei 35 and Polaroid for vacation pictures, etc. Also we always took photos in photo booths when I was with either my mom or my dad or both.

I’ve been lucky to have parents that were very much into the arts. They took me pretty much everywhere with them so I got to see a lot of stuff that a kid my age wouldn’t have been exposed to. Whether it was movies, photography, paintings or theatre, there was a lot of it and most went right over my head at the time. Try to explain ‘Waiting For Godot’ to a 10-year-old. Yet, according to my parents, I watched until the end.

Also, having spent my formative years and early teens in France, the bandes dessinées played a big part. As a child you had Asterix & Obelix, Gaston Lagaffe and many others but later as a teenager/young adult the likes of Hugo Pratt, Munoz & Sempayo, Guido Crepax, Tardi, to name a few really made an impression on me. Not sure if those were originally drawn in color but they were first published in black and white. Still love all those BDs!

But it really started with movies; that’s really my first love, the one constant to this day. My parents took me to more unusual stuff when I was a kid. Sure, we saw all the Disney stuff but lots of old silents such as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, too. And also some of the more challenging German movies such as Metropolis. Those really made an impact on me, more than I care to admit, but the photos don’t lie.

What's your favorite thing about film?

That’s an incredibly difficult question. I like film for its surprises, for the grain, the sound of the shutter and the smoothness of the winding mechanism when you advance to the next frame, the change bag and mounting your negatives on the reels, then mixing the soup, and the inversions, then hanging the film to dry and finally seeing your images. I love film cameras with uncoupled and uncluttered view finders.

I like it for the disappointment when you see an image and you think to yourself, “What was I thinking?!” Then you ask yourself why you’re doing this and you do it again. And again. And again.

Looking at your LomoHome, it's easy to say you like black and white photography. Any particular reason why you prefer it?

I don’t! Black and white is just another bad habit. Kidding aside, I enjoy color film and I have a small amount of color shots on my LomoHome but B&W is my go-to film. After all these years I think my brain is wired that way. Even when I shoot color film, when I scan it, I’ll check how it looks in B&W as sometimes B&W make things a bit more simple. Weird that I would say that colors distract but I guess there’s some truth to it in as far as my photography is concerned.

This summer I’ll shoot some heavily expired color film, some 20- to 40-year-old 120 film, as as well as 135 that I bought for cheap a long time ago. I’m just tired of seeing it in my fridge and it’s a nice challenge. If the colors suck, I can always switch it to B&W in post!

In a note you also wrote about being interested in abstract art as a kid and that influencing your work now. Over the years, has your relationship with abstract art differed? How do you approach it and can you give us a glimpse of the process behind your photos?

Put it this way, I’ve stopped asking myself questions, stopped trying to understand and rationalize every image I take. It has created a very free environment. In the words of Gary Winogrand: “All things are photographable”. I see something as mundane as a roller shutter, I just take the shot and move on.

A lot happens in post processing obviously and I’ve never been cagey about it, whether it’s via messaging or in the comments. There are purists out there, and I get it, I really do, but it doesn’t work for me. It’s an unending conversation that I’ve had many time with members of the community and even though it’s a healthy conversation, it can be polarizing.

The musician in me knows it all to well, laying down your working tracks is just the beginning of a long process of editing. Same with painting as I believe it was Rembrandt that painted three times over one of his images as he wasn’t happy with the way his subjects were positioned. And of course the same with photography. Cropping, adjusting contrast, dodging and burning, etc., are all are a part of the process whether you’re in the darkroom or editing on your computer.

Sure there are differences, but those are all tools and the artist is the driving force, the one with the vision. None of this exists without the artist. As far as I’m concerned there’s no right or wrong way to do it, as long as one is happy then it’s mission accomplished. If others enjoy it, then even better.

Do you have any favorites among your photos?

You’re asking me to choose between my children! I wish I could answer but I can’t. One thing I will say is that none of the images were set up, you know what I mean? I didn’t tell Irina to pose, I just asked her to move however she wanted, no direction so to speak. I didn’t put certain things in a specific order, I just happened to stumble upon them.

Lastly, are there any projects you're working on and would like to share with the community?

Yes, I’m going to self-publish a book about a subject that’s very close to me. A few of those images are on my LomoHome but I kept most of them off when I realized that it was actually becoming something special. This is going to happen after the summer.

After that I have two other self published projects that should see the light of day in 2025. One will be a magazine-like publication and the second a travel diary of sorts that in parts relates to the book coming out this year. Not sure what the format of that will be. Another book or magazine, who knows, maybe a fanzine.

We'd like to thank Guy for sharing his images and stories with us! To view more of his work, check out his LomoHome.

written by sylvann on 2024-07-23 #people #places #black-and-white #abstract #guy-pinhas Share Article