Following some vigorous tweeting from @culturevultures, I was asked to do a mini interview with No Culture Icons to find a little more about the Leeds collective, here’s what they had to say:
Can you tell our readers a little about No Culture Icons?
No Culture Icons is an arts collective/film lab based in Leeds, UK. It started out as being only the collective side of things – just a website where we could keep a list of photographers whose work was an inspiration to our own. It has gone on from there, from being solely photographic to what it is now, with a much broader scope of work in various mediums. The film lab side of things began when we acquired some equipment from the photo lab Liam worked in, it closed down so we are trying to fill the gap it left!
What inspires NCI to promote the processing of analogue formats in a vastly digitised world?
Personally I prefer everything about analogue media for the type of shooting I do. The aesthetic value, a much more considered approach to shooting and its inherent physicality are what appeal to me. I like having something tangible rather than a set of 0’s and 1’s on a computer. Obviously digital is a godsend for people who work commercially in photography and the ability to scan negatives is fantastic for sharing your work with others online.
There’s an emergence of photography apps such as instagram and hipstamatic, have you found that this is encouraging more people to try out the original analog formats? Or is it too easy to recreate it digitally so it’s having an adverse effect?
I don’t think people will ever stop shooting film because you can replicate the aesthetic, I see people supplementing their work in analogue with instagram etc. but I haven’t come across anyone who’s decided to abandon film in favour of these apps. Although the vast majority of commercial work and family snaps are done digitally, film users have found a niche where we can sustain interest in it and, hopefully, keep it alive indefinitely!
Who are the local photographers and filmmakers that we should be looking out for and supporting?
As for the photographers to keep an eye on – Paul Phung, Jon Stanley Austin, Theo Simpson, Andy Jones. On the filmmaker side of things, absolutely look out for our good friends Left Eye Blind, big, big thanks to them!
For more information about No Culture Icons visit their website http://www.nocultureicons.com/