Newcomer of the Week: Sabrina (@rebeccared)

Her passion for photography stemmed from a deep bond with her father who taught her the ins and outs of operating a film camera. Now, she writes poetry not only with words but also with light. Get to know our featured community newcomer Sabrina (@rebeccared) in this brief interview.

Name: Sabrina
LomoHome: @rebeccared
Location: Sanremo - Italy

Please tell us something about yourself and what you do.

I am a hopeless romantic, eternal dreamer. I love playing the piano, singing, writing poetry, sports, reading, traveling, I'm passionate about engines (cars and motorcycles), especially the Ducati.

My father handed me this passion. For a while I was lucky enough to be able to print my black and white photos alone in the dark room. Since my father got sick and then passed away, I had not picked up the camera. A couple of months ago a friend with the same passion, I do not know how and what exactly he did, but he changed something in me that I thought I lost forever. He made me find myself through photography and after five years I picked up my Nikon in my hand again.

How did you find the Community and who/what convinced you to join?

I was looking online for a development and printing service when I discovered the Lomography shop. I bought some films creating my profile. I found myself exploring the site, I read some articles in the magazine, some photos hit me in particular. So I decided to scan and upload one of the photos that's dear to me. When I shot it in 2004, it gave me a sense of story that it still sends to me today.

As you have read the 10 Golden Rules of Lomography, what rule do you apply in your everyday life?

ALL!!!

RULE #1 Take your camera everywhere you go: As you can see from the photo I made with my cell phone, I always have at least one camera on my bag when I'm not carrying my Manfrotto backpack where I hold at least 3-4 bodies and 5-6 lenses.
RULE #2 Use it any time – day and night
RULE #3 Lomography is not an interference in your life, but part of it: Always and everywhere
RULE #4 Try the shot from the hip: I am constantly looking for new angles, points of view and perspectives
RULE #5 Approach the objects of your Lomographic desire as close as possible: I love taking close up
RULE #6 Don’t think (William Firebrace)
RULE #7Be fast
RULE #8 You don’t have to know beforehand what you captured on film.
RULE #9 Afterwards either: I follow my instinct. Sometimes forgetting to adjust the diaphragms or exposure times, I do not clean the lens, etc., as you can see in some photos I picked in the album Errori Meravigliosi- Wonderful Mistakes
RULE #10 Don’t worry about any rules: I hate banality and conformity. I love splendor, creativity, voices out of the chorus, unique things, experiment. These excite me and inspire my emotions.

In this digital age, why still film?

I listen to music on vinyl because I love the rustle of the turntable's punch. I write my stories and my poems with the fountain pen because I like to dirty my fingertips with ink. I read newspapers and printed books because I love the smell of paper and photographs in analogue. Nostalgic? No, I just love beautiful things that gives me excitement that no technology can imitate.

On May 14 I tried a friend's digital camera, I admit I was having fun and I did over 3,000 shots without thinking of anything, but the results are not even comparable to those I got with my beloved Nikon F60. The B&W digital will never have the contrast, saturation, and magic of a black and white film. A digital photo will never have poetry and will never send me the thrill of an analog photo. For my work I have to do with digital, but I will never touch an analog photo with Photoshop. For me it would be like to retouch a picture of Picasso, change the melody of a Chopin's nocturne, change words to a poem by Paul Eluarde . I'm apprehensive to even do the scans from a negative because I'm afraid to modify, though little, the reality that was captured.

Your favorite analog camera as of the moment? Why?

I currently own a Nikon F60, Olympus OM20, Minolta XD-7, and 60/70 camera made in USSR. I recently bought 6 other Nikon bodies (2 N60, 1 F70, 2 F50, 1 F75) for an experiment I hope to do as soon as possible.

Among them, the two I love most are the Olympus OM20 and the first camera I own the Nikon F60. The Olympus one was my father's camera with which he taught me to love photography, and the Nikon F60 is the camera that my father gave me as a gift.

What is the Lomographic camera you’d want to have someday?

A Twin-Lens Reflex

Any song, book, or movie you live by?

Book: Quotation from Living to Tell the Tale by my favorite author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

"Life is not what you have experienced, but what you remember and how you remember it to tell." (This applies even to a photo.)

Film: Dead Poets Society CARPE DIEM ... Take the moment, do not think according to the patterns, always be yourself !!!

The list of songs would be infinite, but in "Non è tempo per noi" by Ligabue I revisit my way of life. To keep dreaming, not adjusting, and remaining faithful to myself:

It is not time for us that we do not dress like you
We do not laugh, we do not cry, we do not love like you
Maybe naïve or stubborn
little shabby if anything
It's not time for us and maybe it will never be
It is not time for us to never wake up
We have dreams too big and beautiful you know
Beautiful or ugly we have faces but never change
It is not time for us and maybe it will never be "

Also now a man has entered my life that makes me live like in "Tutto quello che un uomo" by Sergio Cammariere, only he still does not know. It is the same man who made me find myself and the joy of photography.

Share your current favorite Lomograph, could be yours or a friend’s. Why?

These two photos were taken by my father in 1978 and 1983 and I uploaded them on his memory.

The first photo at that time had a great political value, but to me it still whispers: "I'm proud of you!" It was his favorite photo!

The second, especially in its original form (This is a scan of a print from a scanning of the original, too many steps) for me is absolutely perfect for light, naturalness, spontaneity, for everything

Any Community member you look up to? If so, why him or her?

The members of the community I follow and inspire are so many:

The extraordinary 360° work of @robertofiuza, the amazing light painting of @wildholzkamera, the wonderful @dr_dorokhov's multi-exposure , the breathtaking black and whites of @akula, @lomodesbro, @cfeshe, @fuckdaniels, @lebedev and many others. (Sorry if i did not name all, but in Community there are many extraordinary lomographers.)

In any case, there are two that hit me the most, because that's what I want to be able to do. If I were to write these in my poems and stories I can use words to create emotional images. Now I would like to be able to tell a story, whisper emotions with the poetry of a photograph! Photograph literally means "writing with light" and I would like to be able to be poet not only with words, but also with light! Like these two lomographers:

@jonkersey: His photos are exciting. They touched me. They convey a lot. They tell stories. They accompany you into fragments of life, one step of a dance with the colors of whispering thoughts.

@mell0nc0llie: Perhaps my absolute favorite. Her photos are poems that paint the emotions with light touch and scratching, played by the bow of a violin.

What are you looking forward to in our Community?

Know new photographers, compare with them. Many have helped my experiments, even for those I will do in the future. They have recommended me. I appreciate the comments, though they are negative, as long as they are constructive, because they help me improve. I'm trying to see as many photos as possible. There are already over 300 community members I've seen that uploaded photos. Of some, having over 20,000, I'm putting a little bit, but intent on seeing them all!

I learned a lot from the community, I was excited and that's why I want to say thank you! I hope that I someone is also inspired with my shots!

Thank you Rebecca for sharing your thoughts with us! Welcome to the community and we're looking forward to seeing more of your work.

2017-07-02 #lomohome #newcomer #newcomer-of-the-week