Behind the Scenes at Gulabi Film Lab With Shonagh Kelly and the Lomo'Instant Wide
2Shonagh Kelly is an Irish photographer currently based in Glasgow, Scotland. She spent a day at the Gulabi Film Lab studio, documenting her time there using the Lomo'Instant Wide, and talked to us about her results and shooting with the instant camera.
Hi Shonagh, please tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m Shonagh and I’m an Irish photographer based in Scotland! I have a little cat named Dolly Parton (she is a diva by nature of course) and when I’m not at work during the day, I’m out in my garden or spending it drinking little caramel lattes.
What got you into shooting with film?
I attended Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design from 2016-2020 to study Fine Art and I came across a workshop at the darkrooms there. Within the first day I was totally obsessed with working with film as a medium to create my work. I think being able to take the time and effort to focus on photography was something that I was really attracted to. Rather than the quick digital method, film forced me to slow down and really think about what I was shooting. Not only that, but learning how to print from film was so much fun and I was in the darkrooms daily and printing all sorts of stuff.
Tell us about these photos, what did you choose to shoot?
It took me a while to figure out who or what I wanted to shoot, but I finally reached out to Gulabi Film Lab here in Glasgow to see if they were interested in a little ‘collab’ as such. I’ve sent all of my film there exclusively since 2020 and they’re such a lovely crowd. I sent my first roll there during lockdown and having them open was such a motivation to keep shooting during those sticky times. I shot a lot of film in lockdown when I was briefly living back in Ireland and having such a good and quick service made it something to look forward to.
We agreed I could come into the Lab, situated in the Southside of Glasgow, to merely act as a little fly on the wall and play around with the camera. It was Ben, Chris and Sam who were working that day, and I got to learn so much about the technology behind what they do. It isn’t just chemicals that they’re working with; Sam was telling me so much about the system he’d created and put in place to ensure you could see each roll of film that any customer had dropped off (it was a lot of computing - very much out of my comfort zone so I hope I’ve got that right.) I had a great day shooting with them and getting to see the behind-the-scenes of Gulabi - they truly are the loveliest bunch who have an incredible selection of stickers.
How did you find shooting with the Lomo'Instant Wide camera?
I played around at home with the camera first, just to get a good feel of it. I knew going in that Gulabi is quite dark inside so the flash was definitely going to be used a lot! I found the camera so lightweight and was so easy to carry around Glasgow, even though it’s fairly big, its so light! I found the shutter lever so handy in comparison to other instant cameras that can easily go off without intention.
Any tips for someone wanting to try out instant photography for the first time?
I would suggest definitely shoot some portraits with instant film first, and gradually work around to landscapes etc. I find trying to have ‘mini photoshoots’ with friends is where the real fun happens. Even if these images aren’t fully in focus, they still stand as stunning images to hold.
To see more of Shonagh's work visit her website.
2024-07-11
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