Negative Supply Spotlight : Ben Fraternale
We are very excited to feature the one and only Ben Fraternale from “In An Instant” on our latest spotlight!
Hi there! Introduce yourself to the Negative Supply community.
”Hey there NS family! I am a director and photographer from New York with a wicked and highly publicized film addiction. Though I once orbited the analog community from afar, I threw on some dive gear and plunged hard into the YouTube game over a year ago, launching an instant film series called In An Instant. Though my channel goes deep into the craft of Polaroid photography, I have absolutely adored being a part of the broader analog community and I think I’m speaking for a lot of us in saying it kept me sane during the ‘Rona”
Q: How did you first discover your passion for photography?
“As an ambitious young lad I started shooting professional football at a very young age, eventually worming my way into press credentials in high school and learning the craft through trial and error. My mom studied photography at college and being raised around designers and creatives, I think I naturally gravitated toward cameras and image making. Despite those creatives and cameras around me, I noticed at a certain point that my family had suddenly stopped taking photos. The digital revolution had put off my grandparents and large gaps in our recorded family history started swelling. I think it was at that point that I started to really hone in on photographing everything, making sure every memory was captured and transforming my surroundings into food for my lens.”
Q: What do you enjoy most about shooting film?
“I think in a life of image making, film is the “spice.” Sure, the final image is the grand goal and it should stand beyond the medium, but the abundance of flavors and processes offered by film keeps me engaged in a much different capacity than digital. It’s just more interesting to me on every level. It also keeps me in touch with the physical world. I love disconnecting from pixels and shooting on a tactile medium that takes up material space around me (too much space if you ask my girlfriend). I think everyone in the analog community is bound by that spiritual connection to this tangibility and the humanness of creating something real. “
Q: What are some of your favorite film stocks?
“Bury me with Ektachrome. I just love it. I think in many ways it goes hand in hand with my passion for Polaroid (SX-70 and 600 film), which also produces a positive image and has to be shot similarly due to its narrow latitude. I get boomed every time I see those slides over the light table! I also have to give a shoutout to our fallen soldier FP-100C, Fuji’s peel apart film which produces a wild negative and a beautiful positive print. Having the instant gratification as well as the splash of darkroom magic in claiming the negatives is an engrossing combination everyone will be mourning until the end of days.”
Q: What inspires me most when it comes to your photography?
“I think my biggest inspiration is time. Without any accurate idea of how long I will be alive, I’m constantly propelled and compelled to produce imagery of a life lived. Not only that, but watching my surroundings shift with the passage of time keeps my lens engaged on certain subjects from the past that could disappear at a moment’s notice. And I don’t really mean this in a morbid way, just to say that I want to love and appreciate the colors and life around me; photography is my way of savoring that.”
Q: How has our Negative Supply tools helped your workflow?
“My Negative Supply 8x10 film holder has been absolutely clutch for me. As someone who shoots on a dizzying array of formats, from 645 to 8x10, this scanning tool has breathed a lot of joy and ease into my post-production process. I was finally able to go back and scan some of my favorite chunky peel apart negatives and I’ve had a blast scanning strips of my slide film to form diptychs, tryptics, and whatever the higher number -yptics are called. When it comes to my 8x10 negatives, of course it is a life saver, and having a simple and repeatable process for digitizing them only encourages me to shoot more (which is big for business)”
Q: What camera are you using for scanning?
“I use a Canon 5DS R, my studio darling who is suddenly a celluloid-capturing workhorse!”
We’d like to thank Ben for sharing his work with us! You can check out more of his work on Instagram. Check out the tools Benused below! And if you’d like be featured on our blog send us a email at contact@negativesupply.co