Sam Sanchez

[samsnch]

Together, let us shape the #FutureOfFilm!

The analog community has so many questions. We are willing to host the conference that would answer them, but need your support to do so. 

Go see the whole story on IndieGoGo: igg.me/at/futureoffilm

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Ktnxbye Tumblr

That’s it. I have made a another Wordpress blog where I will continue the Monatsschau series, as well as being the only page where I upload my photo stories. 

I will not delete or deactivate this page though, only leave it stagnant for good.

And with that, let’s jump to my Wordpress and continue the story from there.

[samsnch]

On the future of film photography

(My photo of Mirko and Juho will be uploaded here soon…)

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with Juho Leppänen (COO of CameraVentures) and Mirko Bödeckker (CEO of ADOX and Fotoimpex) for a meeting about the future of film photography in the context of a sustainable market for current and future film photographers and the future film photography ecosystem. This was our first time to meet with each other personally (we had been in touch online though) and it was definitely a great acquaintance event.

This meeting was part of Juho’s #SaveAnalogCameras research project, which you can view and help here: https://cameraventures.com/help. Our discussions mostly revolved about our thoughts on the current and future direction of film photography from our side of the ecosystem: Mirko from the side of a photography consumable (film, paper, and chemical) manufacturer, Juho for the camera resellers, and yours truly for the end-users, the photography community, and the academe.

Our discussions are too long to be listed here and may not be suited for public consumption, but basically we all held similar stances – from the ideas to concrete plans. These will hopefully be enacted in the near future, so stay tuned in our channels!

A little spoiler though: ADOX will be having it factory extension done very soon by September (as Mirko disclosed to us). Hopefully by then, their production space and storage capacity will be doubled, and their dormant and distant machines will be also used in the new building as well, speeding up their workflow. This simply means more consumable products for us film photographers in the near future, and this is definitely a confidence boost for us.

By the end of our meeting we were assured that although film photography might be an uneconomical, hard-to-achieve, and communicatively anachronistic medium of human expression, it is and will be here for the years to come, as long as there will be people passionate enough to make film, paper, and chemicals, resell refurbished cameras, and study into how we use these tools to capture experiences of human life.

Film or digital, the medium matters not.

Finally, to add, film chemicals are the main source of income for manufacturers (whether it’s the small players like ADOX or the giants Kodak and Fujifilm). Photographic film has become a „bonus“ product, and paper does take this role as well, though not for all lines.

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Our web channels:

ADOX/Fotoimpex: www.adox.de www.instagram.com/adox_official/ www.facebook.com/FOTOIMPEX/

CameraVentures: www.cameraventures.com www.facebook.com/cameraventures/ www.instagram.com/cameraventures/

samsnch: www.samsnch.com www.instagram.com/samsnch

[samsnch]

Monatsschau: Februar

February is crunch time for me and my fellow thesis candidates: on the 8th day of the month is our thesis presentations. Hence, we spent all the days before preparing for it.

And on the first day of the month, we held an advanced birthday celebration for our fellow MAID Ferfi, who is flying back home to Mexico two weeks after.

We held her party at the basement of the student dorm building at Brauereistraße, and invited all our good friends along. Of course, fellow Mexicans dropped by.

A few days after, I went to Berlin to come to Milya’s photo exhibition. Actually, it was alongside other DIA students for their photography elective, many of them I know personally.

And that’s her photo.

Presentation week has arrived.

Obviously that made us all feel tense and nervous.

Last minute additions, editions, and corrections.

And then the 8th of February came.

Thesis presentation day!

I was third to present, but mine has held during lunch. I expected for less people to come, but was surprised to see around 1/3 of the lecture room’s seats flled.

A photo made in my UPMin years, shown in my MAID thesis.

Me with Mazin (or Mozzie) and Hammad, after my prez.

Me, Rochus, and Klaus talking after my presentation.

And the trio behind “Through the Viewfinder.”

Our fellow MAIDs gave us a celebratory dinner at the Studio, featuring some home-made delicacies.

The day after, we celebrated with ourselves at the Kartoffelhaus, one of the restos at the Rathausplatz.

We received our master diplomas on the 10th, two days after the presentations. This was also Prof. Bernd Hennig’s farewell show, here he is giving his “final” lecture to the graduates.

And here’s shaking hands with Prof. Nico Neubert (Design Dept. dean), Prof. Uwe Geller (MAID department head), and Prof. Jürgen Rieckhoff (Examinations Dept. head).

Receiving my diploma from Prof. Rieckhoff.

The MAID department gave us a foldable ruler as a parting gift, and the Design Department had us David Foster Wallace’s “Here is Water.”

With Uwe and Sandra, our MAID coordinators.

Photo of me by Volkmar Berthold, from our department’s photography studio.

Kushtrim with Prof. Hennig, who he worked with as his adviser for this own thesis.

Never a MAID photo without a Bauhaus photo.

And then of course, I need to do the Oble here: Iskolar ng Bayan, MAID in Dessau.

This was definitely closing time for many of us: some went back home (to their home countries) after this, some moved to a new city, and some went far away.

I stayed though, because I still had the weirdest feeling of being “not yet prepared” being “outside.”

This was the last time that we were together with Liana, who has supposed to finish her studies a semester ago but postponed it until this semester. Torn between staying here and flying back home to Brazil with Antoine, her boyfriend, she decided the latter. However, a few weeks after she came home, she suddenly passed away, a great shock and loss to our MAID family here just it is to her family, loved ones, and friends in Brazil.

Throughout the next month we spent the days trying to recollect and console each other, culminating in our small tribute to her along the banks of the Elbe.

Speaking of Iskos, here’s my friend, fellow Isko and former Student Regent Cleve Arguelles at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. He came in the Bundeshauptstadt to give a lecture about current Philippine politics to a packed audience at the Humboldt University.

We spent that day talking a lot about UP, the Philippines, Europe, and his studies at CEU (Central European University) in Budapest, Hungary.

Now that I’m officially an unemployed Berufstätige, I had lots of free time to do crazy stuff to myself. And by crazy, I meant enjoying the outdoors again, either through jogging, running, or biking.

The nice thing with living at Anhalt is that it’s flat, with lots of rolling plains and riverside banks conducive for such activities. Dessau-Roßlau, being at the banks of the Elbe, offers lots of these grounds, and living near the northern part of the city, the river and the parks are quite close to my place.

Spring has arrived in the Bauhaus City, but with it comes weird weather as well.

Alcinda, a good friend and colleague at Studio INTO, came to Berlin to visit us here. She came when the news about Liana arrived here, and I spent the day renewing my legal residency here in Germany. 

It was great to see her actually, a sort of happy-end for this month of endings: our graduation from uni and our student life, and Liana’s graduation from life.

[samsnch]

Monatsschau: January

Welcome to the first of the series Monatsschau, a view on what has happened so far in the past few months. Today we’ll look into the first month of the year that was basically the beginning of the end of my student life, and the start of me finding a new path to follow.

By the Maschee in Hannover. Taken with the Rolleiflex MX, which later had to be sent for repair due to a focus syncing issue on shallow apertures (as seen here). 

Back into Dessau, in winter. Not a good “Jahresstart” for the sane enough. Still, could have been worse…

…but at least there was sunshine.

My second thesis adviser Dipl. Ing. Klaus Pollmeier giving me away one of his written books as a “thank-you” gift for the past months that we have been working together for my master thesis.

Dessau Stadtpark in Winter.

Taz, Anya, and Sam.

Clarinha trying to start a snowball fight.

Finally, my book! (more info here)

Now that I’m free from writing, time to develop some more film in the uni photo lab…

…and rent the FM3a. I have one but it’s still at home, and having it sent here means I had to pay the stupid import tax.

Final week for the younger sems and it’s crunch time for their studio projects.

Finally, presentation day. Everyone’s showing their semester works.

A short recap on what has been done, and some last-minute reminders before prepping for the Dessau Design Schau.

Last Saturday on the Month: it’s the annual Dessau Design Schau. This exhibition is part of Prof. Bernd Hennig’s “FACES” project, which is his culminating work as professor in the Dessau Department of Design.

Here, he’s talking with my classmates Gado and Juan.

Nikon FM3a meets RED Dragon.

On the last day of the month, I went to Berlin with Milya to help her with her photo project. That night’s weather was abyssmal, to say the least, as it rained and snowed many times before deciding to snow even further.

At least we’re now leaving the winter season, but before that I had to present my master thesis next month.

[samsnch]

Unfortunately I have failed myself again to upload some content here, due to my busyness in other activities (*cough* EU4 *cough* YouTube *cough* job hunting)

So instead, I might just drop by here once a month and post my month’s picks. After all, I don’t get that much time to photograph as well.

Less but better, this time around.

However, if you do drop by at my website (here), you might see lots of new content there.

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Am Dessau (Richtung Oranienbaum-Wörlitz), Biosphärenresevat Mittelelbe March 2017

Rolleiflex MX + Ilford HP5+

[samsnch]

“air wind breath” MAID Winter Semester 2016-17 Studio Presentations

26.01.2017 Foyer, Bldg. 04 Hochschule Anhalt, Campus Dessau

[samsnch]

From the first words written on 17.10.2016 (yes it took me that long before I started writing, and that was not even part of the final idea as well!), to the published book on 16.01.2017, my master thesis #ThroughTheViewfinder brought me into new heights of practicing and studying photography, not just from the design or communication PoV, but also from the sociocultural, sociopolitical, cybernetic, and chaotic PoVs as well. It led me to the realisation that photography is the communication of the absolute relativity, and of a reality that constantly changes, and to a new framework of understanding that I call "the Viewfinder Framework."

It could have not been possible without the help of my parents, my advisers , the MAID department faculty, my fellow MAIDs, my former mentors in UPMin especially to my former thesis adviser, my fellow Iskos and Iskas, to several people who helped me ideate during the inception phase, to my best friends from home and here, and of course, the help of the Almighty.

There will still be the presentation though, and it will happen on 08.02.2017. Mark that date folks! This definitely means that my troubles have not ended yet, especially that it is also our thesis defense, and we are graded during the presentation as well as the output. It will surely be a nail-biter for me and the rest of my fellow thesis candidates, but it's a mere step compared to the marathon that we had to do since last year (or last semester).

For now, as the winter goes for better (or worse, depending on who you ask), let me spend my next two weeks in bliss playing Europa Universalis 4 for the memes, finding a job and new city to live in after Dessau, spending time in the Photo Workshop developing my film rolls, and probably revisiting some side projects that I wanted to accomplish before (*hint hint* Mindanao Railway Project *hint hint*).

With this, I move all my thesis files to my several backup storages and call my work done.

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The top photograph was made by Mr. Denis Geserick, who together with Mr. Manfred Schwarz, are the two superheroes of our Printing Workshop. They are tireless, patient, and really helpful in our printing projects, whether it may be semester project posters or the thesis books. Dankeschön vielmals meine Herrn!

And yes as you can see from the book cover, it is indeed a viewfinder. Specifically, a Leica M9 viewfinder and rangefinder patch.

[samsnch]

As I’ve mentioned on my 2016 year-ender, I’ll photograph 2017 mostly with my film cameras. After reviewing my shooting experience and the kind of photographs made between my 35mm and 120 cameras, I’ve decided to shoot medium format more than 35mm at ratio of 5 MF shots to 1 35mm shot. This means that I will post less but post better.

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Am Becherbrucker Park Dessau-Roßlau, Germany

05.01.2017

[samsnch]

New year, and a revived Tumblr account.

For 2017 I’ll be posting here my photographs once more.

Besides the return, I plan to shot exclusively in film for this year in my travels and in my daily photography, except when urgency is top priority.

So, what has happened to me between now and my last actual post two years ago? Well I’ve moved to Germany to pursue master studies in Integrated Design and travelled a lot, with cameras in tow of course.

To start the roll, here are my heavily-underexposed shots from last year’s hastily-done FP4 Party around Georgium Park in Dessau.

[samsnch]

12 points on 2016

It was a meme.

Its memes were better than real life.

My sudden decision to come home last February was the best Schnappsidee so far, beyond choosing UPMin for undergrad and Germany as my Auslandsort.

I’ve met some of the best people in this year. A lot in fact.

My travels were some of the best that I had. To everyone who hosted me and made my travels possible, daghang salamat, tusen tack, merci vielmals, dankeschön!

My Summer Semester was the best and worst semester in MAID.

I acquired my favorite film cameras to use, too bad the best of them (the Nikon FM3a) sits at home (as in in Tagum) at the moment.

This was my year of studying the theory of photography, as seen in my master thesis “Through the Viewfinder.” But it sucked all the life of me.

Alongside this, my photographs were degrading in quality. My studies were not showing in them.

This year is the year to be ironic, with all the post-factualism and nativism.

Return to DotA, but until the 7.00 patch. Blessed be the lunar beacon!

Finally knew something important about photography and life: it’s absolutely relative.

Expectations for 2017:

After February, should I stay here more or fly home? Should I work here or there?

I’m too European to be Filipino, too Filipino to be European. Also known as, I have a schizophrenic nationality problem.

Less social media; I might even switch off or lock myself out of this and only leave the SMS social network on (because I miss texting on a real numpad.)

Photographs will be only made with film.

Find' ich endlich meine Liebe denn? *wink wink*

Abstract memes.

Profit, oder wenn’s “Geldbörse” voll ist.

This will be a life-changing year.

“We don’t make mistakes, only happy accidents.” – Bob Ross

2017 is one of the prime number years, divisible by itself and 1.

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2015, in bullet form.

Country-hopping, place-hopping, meeting new people, making new friends, building new cities, acquiring new territory, winning new battles, and the year of Polandball.

Tagum, Davao, Kidapawan, Manila, Singapore, Melaka, Kuala Lumpur, Frankfurt a.M., Dessau, Berlin, Leipzig, Wittenberg, Villingen, Zweibrücken, and all the countries that we flew over during that flight from Singapore to Frankfurt.

#UPMin@20, #DevianceDay, #KidapawanTrip, #DavNorPalaro2015, #SGMY, #Deutschlandreise, and #MAIDinDessau.

120 film FTW, Rolleicord IV, Ricoh GR.

And what will 2016 be?

Perhaps all about integrated design, more travelling around Europe, and slowly being Germanised by the day while still preserving my Tagumeño-ness and Isko-ness (I have no better words to describe them but you get the deal).

So nothing much differs between this and next year except that 2016 will be all spent in Germany, Deutschland, Allemagne, Niemcy, Saksa, or whatever your language calls this country in Central Europe.

Naja, alles Gute bei uns in 2016, und gute Rutsch! Genießen das Leben in vollen Zügen!

And here’s my year-end mix for those musically-inclined: http://soundcloud.com/samsnch/2015a

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My first side trip to Bääääärlin!

06.11.2015

[reusful]

the crazy friday 13/11/2015: pray for paris , pray for japan , pray for beirut, pray for baghdad no where is safe people so please pray for this whole world cause we all need it right now it is not about religion or color or anything you could think of it is about innocent people losing their life so pray for this whole world

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Dessau-Roßlau am Herbst in Schwarz-Weiß.

[samsnch]

Ohhai!

After a year of preparation and months of searching for the right uni to apply, I am now finally living the dream in Germany.

Basically right now I am a student of MA Integrated Design (Int.) at Hochschule Anhalt / Anhalt University of Applied Sciences under the Department of Design in Dessau, home to the Bauhaus.

I’ve promised that I’ll be writing about this in detail, but I’ve decided to make a step further and document it in a blog called samsnchindessau (click the link to go there, which as of writing this post, is empty of content yet). UPDATE: I’ve decieded to just post the photos in my personal Facebook page, as I’m really lazy and don’t have enough time to work on a proper blog. So if you’re a Facebook friend of mine, you can see it there.

And if you’re asking how am I, after three or so weeks of living here, I’m really doing great! Dessau, despite its weird tendency to hide its best secrets in the far corners of the city (especially, food), is like Tagum: small and compact, yet very liveable and accessible, and all you need are in one place: the malls are in the city center, the parks around the city, and the Bauhaus just to the west.

So, keep your tabs on my other blog to see more of my life here in Dessau in the near future. :)

Pass auf euch auf!

[committeetoprotectjournalists-d]

The camera is the most powerful tool ever invented—it is more powerful than any weapon. Its strength comes from empowering people and multiplying their potential. It is a tool that speaks all the languages and can connect its holder with everyone in the world. It is also a tool that enables each person to share their story and their unique point of view.

Reza, for Lens Culture. (via committeetoprotectjournalists)