Introducing Jacob Saavedra (@jsaavedra93) — North America's Honorary LomoHome of September 2024

In celebration of our extremely talented community, the team at Lomography USA have been honoring their favorite active Lomographers on our website for "LomoHome of the Month." For the month of September we're highlighting community member Jacob Saavedra (@jsaavedra93) for his experimentation with color and subject matter throughout his body of work.

Jacob's Lomographic journey began when he came across LomoAmigo Ben Fraternale's review of the LomoApparat and never looked backed! Fast forward to today, Jacob has mastered shooting with our LomoChrome films and continues to create extraordinary shots that draw from his background in graphic design and painting.

Lomographic Beginnings

Hello! My name is Jacob Saavedra and I am a multi-disciplinary artist from New Mexico. I graduated from the Southwest University of Visual Arts with a degree in graphic design and minor in painting. This is also where I discovered my love for photography since I was so surrounded by different forms of art and it really allowed me to spread out and try everything I could, along with the help of some incredible professors. I fell in love with film instantly and the feeling of analogue as I felt it allowed me to be more in the moment with my artwork.

I feel like film has a completely different feel to it from digital aside from the analogue aspect of it. There is just something about the way that the film captures lights and shadows that I feel like is almost lost in digital format, especially when comparing to the world of phone cameras being the norm now. It really is the difference between actual light being flashed onto a physical medium versus a sensor replicating what it sees via pixels.

I was first introduced to Lomography while watching a YouTuber by the name of In An Instant where he talked about the LomoApparat and I instantly knew I wanted to try one, which then began my deep dive into Lomography and all the different types of cameras and film types that just blew my mind, especially LomoChrome Turquoise which was love at first sight.

Living an Analogue Lifestyle

Previously I was always a fan of Kodak’s Portra series of film but within the last year I have almost exclusively used LomoChrome Purple and LomoChrome Turquoise. I absolutely love being able to capture nature or an everyday scene with those films as it gives them an entirely different feel, something abstract and new.

I have a few different cameras that I like to switch between but my absolute favorite that I use the most out of all of them is my Minolta Maxxum 5000AF which was my dad’s camera from back in the day and actually my very first film camera. I carry pretty light when out shooting though, usually only taking my camera, a second lens (I usually just have a wide-angle and telephoto) and 2 pocket cases of film with a variety of options. I don’t even use a flash or tripod the vast majority of the time.

I hope that people can see their surroundings through a different filter, notice details they normally wouldn’t or would just ignore. I think that’s the beauty of the Lomo Purple and Lomo Turquoise films as well. They get people to stop and really examine what they are looking at. It’s familiar but still so very different from what they are used to. It’s also very fun to me to explain to people that the photos aren’t photoshopped but actual film.

Golden Rule #1 is just so crucial to my entire process. I always have at least one camera on me at all times no matter where I’m going. There are so many sources of inspiration in day-to-day life that I feel like are so easy to miss, so I want to make sure I’m ready for them when they pop up.

My absolute favorite photo I have taken is actually a fairly recent one, it is a picture of 4 fighter jets flying so close to one another that they almost look like it was just 1 jet that was cut out and pasted over itself.

Those shots were taken at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico during an air show they were having. I wanted to test myself to see if I could capture something as fast and as small as those jets flying over head. It was a real test not just of my skills but endurance as well since it was over 100 degrees outside. I was even noticing my camera starting to fire slower as it got hotter.

Looking to the Future

I am currently preparing for an educational trip to Mexico City. I am going on next February and I plan to get a lot of extraordinary shots while I am there, especially amongst the ancient structures we will be seeing there.

I really hope to see not just more people getting into analogue photography themselves, but I would also love to see more experimental films and cameras.

Thank you Lomography for taking the time to talk to me and share my work! I am very very grateful for the opportunity. And thank you to everyone reading! You can find me on Instagram which I where I am most active with my artwork posts.

If you're interested in keeping up with Jacob and his work, make sure to check out his LomoHome and Instagram.

written by eloffreno on 2024-09-19 #gear #culture #people #experimental #lomohome #golden-rules #community #community-member