Shadow & Light Monthly #27

Shadow & Light is a list of curated photography stories, features, techniques, news and inspiration that I’ve come across this month.

In this month’s edition we look at how the instant camera came to be and how one Syrian photographer is using photography to help at-risk children. We see the winners of the Siena International Photo Awards 2021 and take a closer look at what might just be the weirdest lens of all time.

So, with no further ado, I give you this month’s Shadow & Light Monthly. Go grab yourself a cuppa and enjoy this month’s selections below. Please let me know in the comments what you think.

Pick of the month – Genius, Madness and Obsession: How the Instant Camera Was Invented

I’ve always been a lover of Polaroid cameras. There’s something inherently special about a photo with no negative. A one-off capture, never to be repeated. Not to mention the magic of seeing a fully developed photograph emerge from the front. It’s something I remember being absolutely mesmerised by as a child.

There’s a great article over on Fstoppers that takes a deep dive into how the instant camera was born from genius, madness and obsession.

If this kind of thing floats your boat I can thoroughly recommend watching Time Zero: The Last Year of Polaroid Film which is a fantastic insight into the business.

Additional reads

Mobile classroom teaches at-risk children the art of analogue photography

Syrian photographer Serbest Salih has set up a mobile photography school that introduces vulnerable Syrian, Iraqi, and Turkish children to analog photography.

The decision to teach analog and not digital photography came down to Salih’s belief that this type of photography is more tactile. Each roll and image requires careful consideration which he believes cultivates imagination. He says that learning to work with film also enables children to better understand the photographic process from start to finish.

You can read more about this fantastic project over on PetaPixel.

Those interested in the project can visit its Instagram and the Sirkhane website.

Emotional shot of father holding son wins Siena Photo Awards 2021

A powerful photograph of a one-legged Syrian father holding his son born without lower or upper limbs has been recognized as the Siena International Photo Awards (SIPA) 2021 photo of the year.

You can see more of the winning images from the various categories in the SIPA 2021 Gallery, including Shirley Wung’s winning entry in the “The Beauty of Nature” category. You may remember Wung’s incredible long exposure images were featured back in Shadow & Light #23.

And finally – Is this the weirdest lens of all time?

This month saw the official release of what has to be the weirdest lens I think I’ve ever seen – The Canon RF 5.2mm f/2.8L Dual Fisheye lens for the Canon EOS R mirrorless system.

I first saw the patent for this lens appear over on Canon Rumors and I thought I was going mad. Occasionally you see patents and think “well obviously that’s never going to be released” but lo and behold this month that very lens was officially announced.

Just in case fisheye lenses weren’t weird enough, Canon have stuck two of these suckers on here. Designed specifically for virtual reality and 180° VR content I think it’s fair to say this lens is a little niche.

The lens does, naturally, look quite odd. It contains two lenses, each one being a 5.2mm f/2.8L lens. The lenses both have a 190° field of view in both the X and Y axes and being slightly apart from each other (similar to the distance between human eyes). This allows it to capture a stereoscopic view of the world that we then have some freedom to look around in post.

Confused? Canon Marketing Japan has just released some first-look 1080-degree VR footage shot with this crazy contraption. Go ahead and drag around in the video below… bonkers right?!

Until next time…

I hope you enjoy the articles above. Don’t forget you can follow my Shadow & Light magazine over on Flipboard if you’d like to see more of what I’m reading if you like what you’ve seen here.