Bringing the City to Life — LomoChrome Purple Photography by Michele Marcolin a.k.a. @liveactionhero
1 6 Share TweetHaving lived in Japan for 25 years, working as a researcher and teacher, Michele Marcolin (@liveactionhero) gained renewed interest in film photography through curatorial work that involved infrared film, and by seeking an even more colorful and unpredictable reality with LomoChrome film.
In this interview, he tells us about his background as an Egyptology researcher and freelance music and events photographer, getting the hang of the LomoChrome Purple learning curve, film culture in Japan, and more.
Hi, Michele! Welcome to the magazine. First, can you tell us about yourself? How and when did you discover film photography?
My name is Michele, and I am a 1970-born Italian from the Trieste-Gorizia area—in the country's extreme northeast. I have spent my last twenty-five years in Tokyo, where I came for academic research purposes back in 1999. I am still a researcher, teacher, and photographer. I mostly work as an Italian language and history teacher at the Italian Cultural Institute of Tokyo. However, I am still an active Associate Research Fellow in Egyptology at Waseda University, Tokyo, as well as at the Academy of Science of Turin, Italy.
For about fifteen years, I have also stuck one foot into the image business as a photographer of music, events, and artist portraits. Plus a few other tricks related to video-making.
Concerning film photography, I think that my first rendezvous with cameras and related things was when I was about 8 years old: my parents gifted me a toy camera as a birthday present, which I briefly used in absolute bliss. After a brief backdraft before moving to Japan with a point-and-shoot camera, I got back to it more consistently only a couple of years ago, after two decades of digital photography.
What do you like to shoot?
Initially, it was merely slices of my daily life and surroundings, which I wanted to share with friends and family back in Italy. But I progressively got serious about it, experimenting, studying, following seminars, and trying out various subjects. Originally, I had a half-idea of becoming an elemental photographer (sky, snow, ice, landscapes, atmospheric events, etc.), but life in Tokyo made that pretty unrealistic.
Most unexpectedly, my passion for rock and heavy metal ushered me into the world of live music reportage, and artists' related performances. From there various other events and horizons, including some social reportage for documentaries. And I ended up enjoying all that, sticking to it so far. My late film explorations, still in their infancy, are more focused on street environments and experiments in daily life; mostly to explore the use of specific old cameras.
Has being in a different environment and culture affected the way you view or approach photography?
Yes, indeed. I think that practicing photography in Tokyo, or Japan in general, is a very privileged experience. It cannot avoid influencing your perception and development of your interests, because Japan is a sort of camera and photography’s Mecca. Tools and electronic shops are at every corner; makers’ showrooms and galleries host new exhibitions or display new products every few weeks. Many used camera shops, private galleries, and workshops expose you to photographic opportunities that you would hardly access elsewhere.
Even schools often include photography in their curricula, so in general, the average person is more acknowledged with that sort of know-how and matters. All this, unquestionably, plays a role in moving you forward or sideways. It offers choices and possibilities you could hardly fancy elsewhere. In my case, I would have never imagined I would end up working for bands or important performers in various fields.
In general, I am no artist. I can not perceive photography as a form of art. I ended up seeing it as a process of acquisition and preservation of frames of reality for an absentee audience. Something more related to journalism or archival purposes rather than creativity. And this came perhaps as a result of my research and academic background.
The digital camera is to me the most versatile tool for individually carrying out the whole imaging process by yourself: shooting, processing, and publishing your work in the first person. Film photography, on the other hand, by remaining more alchemical and reliant on material processes, feels like more fit to expectations that are traditionally rooted in artistic experiences or individual interpretations of the world, where objectivity is less relevant.
I don’t indulge in it that often. When I do, I consider it something personal and I am not that active in sharing it. I myself have little interest in specific photographers' experiences unless there is some technical aspect they could contribute to my way of working. The best use for a photograph remains for me on a billboard or magazine, where it can be accessed by as many people as possible, even if they do not mean to. Or in a memory book.
You also mentioned LomoChrome films as fuel to your exploration of film photography. What do you like about these color-shifting filmstocks?
My involvement with LomoChrome films came fundamentally out of an outburst of interest in infrared photography and its color switches. After getting involved with curatorial work for the equipment and photographic archive of a renowned Japanese photographer of the past that included samples of it, I got so hooked by the infrared film rendering that I started delving into it with the idea of trying it out (I love colors and can’t fancy a monochrome reality).
Unfortunately, it turned out quite tricky and expensive. On the contrary, LomoChrome Purple and Turquoise films, which I stumbled upon shortly after, seemed to offer a likewise intriguing but more affordable alternative. So I went for it and ended up not only addicted to them but also developing a renewed interest in film photography in general.
What do you think about the LomoChrome Purple? How was your experience with it?
LomoChrome Purple was and remains my first love in LomoChrome. I have not yet developed any specific project based on its uniqueness; I mostly just exited its learning curve. Yet, I feel it answers well my expectations and needs in terms of a different and more original, as well as unpredictable, colorful alternative to our daily reality.
Using it is quite straightforward: after a few rolls, it becomes easy to understand and foresee the color changes, but you are still left with a factor of a surprise to contrast or intensity, the thing that adds another factor of pleasure to the experience. I also like it for portraiture. Results have an extra kick that, I believe, sets your work beyond the usually seen pictures, both digitally or in prints.
How about the LomoChrome Metropolis? This film stock is known as a good fit for street photography, so how was your experience shooting in Tokyo?
As you mentioned, LomoChrome Metropolis was developed with a specific street photography feel in mind, and its low saturation is indeed suggestive of the grayness and monotony of a metropolitan environment like Tokyo. I have not yet tried it in other urban contexts (Europe for example), but I feel that here in Tokyo it can return results that are even too... Tokyo-ish!
A bit too monochromatic, perhaps flattening reality too much. LomoChrome Purple seems to bring the city more to life in this sense.
With surprise, instead, I had good results with Metropolis for nature and wildlife environments, where greens and cold tones turned out accentuated, together with visible contrasts and lines. LomoChrome Metropolis performs well with artificial lights, around evening, with longer shutter speeds and higher ISO, when yellows and oranges pop up against the cold-toned background. There, perhaps you can glimpse more of the street feel that is its trademark.
Anyway, being the most affordable LomoChrome film of all, I think it makes the best choice to keep your camera loaded with.
Lastly, do you have any film-related goals you're working on that you'd like to share with us?
Well, first and foremost, keep on enjoying this journey of mine into analogue photography with old SLR cameras and LomoChrome film. I absolutely want to try the LomoChrome Turquoise as soon as possible, because it seems even more extreme and closer to infrared film than LomoChrome Purple. But I do not want to spoil it: I am waiting to have a good inspiration and location for that.
Further, developing and printing my images could also be on the horizon sometime soon. Nowadays, the limit of film photography is that hardly any print is original. Almost all the negatives and slides end up scanned and printed from the digital version, compromising the photographic experience with settings and automated color adaptations that can vary significantly depending on the lab or device used. And then we’ll see. I kind of stopped setting up targets and objectives too rigidly. I like surprises.
We'd like to thank Michele for sharing his images and stories with us! To view more of his work, visit his LomoHome.
written by sylvann on 2025-02-03 #culture #people #places #tokyo #japan #lomochrome-purple #lomochrome-turquoise #liveactionhero #michele-marcolin
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