A Tropical Escape with Caroline Ruffault and the LomoChrome Color'92 Sun-kissed Film

Caroline Ruffault is a familiar face in our pages. This time she’s sharing scenes from a recent trip to Costa Rica!

Under the sun and surrounded by lush landscapes, she tested the latest edition of our LomoChrome Color '92 Sun-kissed film in 35 mm. Caroline shares her impressions through a personal narrative, blending travel and analogue experiences. We take a deep dive into her world, and read her thoughts behind the images in her own words.

In my handbag, there’s always a small analogue camera—either an Mju-II or sometimes another point-and-shoot Nikon I found for €6.50 in a warehouse in Finistère. When I travel, I also bring my Rolleiflex SL35, but I keep it for shooting days, encounters, and those moments when I take the time to photograph.

My travel journal is the camera at the bottom of my bag—the one that takes hits, collects sand, and follows me absolutely everywhere. It’s my worn-out travel notebook, with crumpled pages, coffee stains, and bits of the beach stuck in the binding.

As a child, I often traveled far and wide—my father liked to see himself as a modern-day Jack London, an adventurer in search of gold and sapphires. All the warm-toned images filling our photo albums shaped my vision of the world beyond, and the LomoChrome '92 Sun-kissed film reminded me of those atmospheres and my father's old slides.

Pristine beaches lined with palm trees, Bali in the late '70s, Kenya and the banks of the Tana River—fragments of distant memories brought back to life through the hues of this film.

In the end, Costa Rica turned out to be far less exciting. The country has been transformed by Americans into a giant theme park, stripped of much of its soul. Everything is overpriced, and tourists shuffle in single file to catch a glimpse of the last sloths, their necks craned toward the sky.

Only in the misty mountains, far from the beaches, did I find a bit of authenticity.

These two weeks in Costa Rica were just a detour after six weeks in residence in Texas, an attempt to make the most of already being on the other side of the world by taking a vacation and visiting another country.

Now that I’m back, I realize the images from my childhood have faded, and there’s not much meaning in flying across the world for just ten days. Breton beaches are just as beautiful, and I imagine using the Sun-kissed film closer to home—not to chase travel imagery shaped by a collective imagination, but to capture real vacation memories. Floral swimsuits, paddleball games in the grass, frozen lemons, niniches and berlingots bought in the evening when the daylight lingers, waiting eagerly for the ice cream vendor to grab an orange pouss pouss.

This summer, my bag will still have a point-and-shoot in flash mode, and a roll of LomoChrome Color '92 Sun-kissed.

Thank you, Caroline, for sharing your story! To follow Caroline’s work, find her on Instagram and her website.

written by alplvl on 2025-03-21 #gear #people #places #travel #first-impressions #lomochrome-color-92-sun-kissed Share Article