“Frankfurt | Purple | Słubice”: a Series on the Border with the LomoChrome Purple, by Roman Boichuk

Ukrainian-born Roman Boichuk, aka rb_35mmfilm has been living in Frankfurt (Oder) on the German-Polish border for three years now, where he is studying Culture and History of Central and Eastern Europe at the European University Viadrina in the Master's program. The very special feeling of living here practically on the border and the charm of small Frankfurt inspired Roman to explore the city also through the lens of his Praktica MTL 5B and Minolta Hi-Matic F. In this article he talks about the series that was created on LomoChrome Purple ISO 100-400.

Before Frankfurt, I lived in different big cities in Ukraine and Germany, but it was only in relatively small Frankfurt that I felt the desire to photograph the city and life in it. It was perhaps also a protest against all the prejudices that exist against Frankfurt (Oder). Especially because of the close proximity to Berlin. Many students here are commuters from Berlin, they flock to the city in the morning to leave it again in the afternoon. Few give Frankfurt a chance to surprise them.

"It's a very special feeling to live on the border, especially when you often hardly feel that it is there. "

I have been photographing with different analog cameras for 6 years. I understand that the analog photography craft often has to do with a certain nostalgia, but I definitely don't feel it as a look back, but rather into the future - at least while shooting: you always have to think about what will happen next. After all, the film has to be delivered to the photo lab.

Also, analog photography for me is not only what happens in the viewfinder, but also what happens around it: you focus on the people you're photographing, the environment, and the light. You perceive the world around you much more sensitively. For me, it's also always about the surprise effect: there's always the possibility to experiment and be amazed, without waiting for the surprise from outside.

I wanted to try the LomoChrome Purple ISO 100-400 for a long time, but only after a personal experience I realized this idea. My daily life in Frankfurt was changed by a new flatmate. She brought a wide variety of things from kitchen appliances to furniture into the apartment. Everything was pink and purple. They were in some contrast to the atmosphere of our old building apartment. After a few months of living together, I happened to ask myself the question, "What would it be like if the whole city suddenly looked like this? That gave me the idea to create a photo series of Frankfurt and its neighboring city Słubice, where they are not immediately recognizable. I chose the "LomoChrome Purple ISO 100-400":https://shop.lomography.com/en/lomochrome-purple-film-35mm-5pack film for this project, which allowed me to capture well-known places of the two border cities (Frankfurt (Oder) and Słubice) from a different perspective.

"I appreciate the LomoChrome Purple 100-400 as a great experimental analog film to photograph already known places in 'new light'. At the same time, the film allows you to pick out objects from the photographed space in a special way, so that later it looks like they got into the photo by 'copy paste'. The flexible ISO is also a super feature of the film."

I took this photo series with my Praktica MTL 5B and my Enna Ennalyt 1:3.5/ 28mm and Pentacon 1.8/ 50mm lenses. The photo project "Frankfurt| Purple| Słubice" was exhibited at the art festival "Art on the Border" between November 5th and 30th The festival took place in the shop windows of Oderstr. 5 in Frankfurt (Oder) despite the COVID-19 restrictions.

Many thanks to Roman, for the wonderful photographs and insights into his series. Follow him on Instagram to not miss any of his creations!

Also check out the store, get your roll of LomoChrome Purple ISO 100-400 and turn your world into a purple wonderland! Share your creations in your LomoHome, we are already excited for them <3

written by alinaxeniatroniarsky on 2021-01-21 in #culture #people #places