FILM TALKS #24: RASHA KAHIL (UK)

FotoFilmic: In looking at the progression of your fine art work, it seems you have evolved from a documentary-based approach into a more staged, studio based and conceptual one, with the human body becoming the main focus of your explorations. How do you view that shift of focus in your artistic practice?
Rasha Kahil:
In a way, I would say that I’ve explored those two threads in parallel throughout my art practice. I have been photographing my everyday as a daily exercise in observation of my surroundings since I started my blog “La Gueule du Monde” back in 2008. I’ve since taken thousands of 35mm images as a form of photographic documentation of places I’ve been, people I’ve met, strangers, landscapes and still-lifes, or simply scenes in my day-to-day that have captured my attention and imagination for a moment. As a blog which I updated to the rhythm of my activity, La Gueule du Monde allowed me to freeze-frame mundane moments or spectacular events – a visual diary of sorts– but also to practice editing of my photography, to understand light and colours on film, to hone my skills in capturing what Henri Cartier Bresson called le moment décisif.
In parallel, I work on projects that are more conceptual in their approach, such as In Your Home or The White Room. They are often triggered by a candid shot I take for my blog, and then develop into a more thought-out series which explores a theme or idea I want to communicate. The themes I work in all intertwine in one way or other, and mostly deal with the body as a primary working tool, exploring the clash of the private and the public, identity in self-representation, displacement, passions and death. Although I work mostly with photography, I usually let the message dictate the final medium and visual outcome, so projects have in the past also taken the form of video, text, installation and sculpture. Whereas these themes appear in my documentary-style photography in a more snapshot format, I can delve into them more thoroughly and with a clearer message when I develop them as a more composed series.

F/F: Have you always been shooting on film for these different series and if so, did the experience of shooting on film ever informed your practice in any specific way?
RK:
I find that using film more calculated in a sense that, rather than just shooting blindly, it allows me to focus more on the composition, to wait for the right moment to capture a scene, and to move on. It sharpens my eye. After all, a 35mm only allows for 36 frames, and even less with a medium format camera. With digital, one becomes obsessed with the image just taken, reviewing it straight away, or deleting too soon. With film, the delay allows a certain distance between shooting the image and actually seeing it for the first time. I often go back to old images I’ve taken and rediscover shots that I had at a first glance dismissed, or that acquire more meaning with time. Also, the quality of light, colors and depth of field in film is undeniable. Maybe there’s a bit of retromania to it, but although it is more time-consuming and expensive –and so often out of focus!– I still love it.

F/F: You also work as an editorial photographer for different fashion and lifestyle magazines. Is photographing on film still a viable option for your editorial and commercial assignments? Are there, according to you, substantial pros and cons to shooting on film today?
RK:
I occasionally do commissioned or commercial work, and even then, I still work with 35mm film or medium format. I have to admit that I do sometimes shoot on digital as well as a safety back-up, but only because I do fear the teeny tiny off-chance that the film rolls get ruined one way or another. Of course, that’s never happened and it’s always the film shots that make the cut.
I used to be more ferocious in my dismissal of digital photography, but I now think that there’s a place for both in regards to the type of images that one wants to create. It is very hard to compare the work of Bruce Weber for example, who still extensively shoots beautiful portraits and editorials on film, with that of Mert and Marcus and their stylized and hyperreal fashion images.
There is a tendency for faster turnarounds in the delivery of images in commercial fields, and this leads to a lot of work being done on digital cameras to suit the shorter deadlines, but I think that if photographers are confident in their use of film and create images that are worth the extra days’ wait, then clients will follow suit. They choose photographers for their style of work, not their speed. And nothing is ever that urgent.

F/F: Do you photograph digitally as well? If yes, what’s your rationale for it?
RK:
In my case, I still haven’t been converted to digital, and don’t think I will in the foreseeable future. I am first and foremost a film photographer: this process of working informs my practice and is part of its identity. Although i have to admit I do use my iphone camera for Instagram more often that I should…

F/F: F/F’14 is dedicated to promoting the new generations of photographers attached to film: what essential advice or recommendation would you have for them?
RK:
Although shooting on film might seem like an expensive option, and it does sometimes feel ‘precious’ in the sense that frames are limited on a roll of film, I say shoot shoot shoot and shoot some more. I have sometimes wasted half a roll of film just trying to get that one perfect shot, and it’s worth every single click. Even though you don’t see it straightaway like you would on a digital camera, you can feel when you’ve captured that decisive moment, and that feeling is irreplaceable. There is nothing more exciting than picking up a freshly processed batch of pictures.

F/F: What have you been up to recently? Any recent achievements, projects, news you want to share?
RK:
I have recently self-published my 3rd photo book “The White Room” which is now stocked in a few photography bookstores in London, Paris and Beirut, as well as selling online from my blog and website. The White Room is a series I shot in Berlin in 2011, creating intuitive and uncanny compositions using bodies, and random objects I found scattered around my temporary sublet. This is the first book from a new series of books I will be releasing twice yearly. I love the freedom that comes with self-publishing: creating a book from its inception, from the idea to editing, designing and finally distribution.
I’m also working on a couple of new photographic series and a mixed-media installation, so hopefully will be keeping myself busy this year!

F/F: If anything was possible, what would be your next ultimate project photography-wise (or else)?
RK:
“Between 11 and Noon” is a series of portraits I did last year of men that embodied a certain personal ideal, using my gaze and the act of photographing as a tool for appropriation. I would love to extend that series with men from the entertainment world, incorporating the idea of idealization within fandom and celebrity culture. They’re so heavily guarded and polished in their public presence, it would be very interesting to strip that layer (literally so, in the case of “Between 11 and Noon”) and portray them among my original series of men… so Michael Fassbender, if you’re reading this!

© All photographs by Rasha Kahil
http://www.rashakahil.com/
http://rashakahilblog.blogspot.ca/

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FotoFilmic’s new FILM TALKS series is all about sharing experienced views, artistic endeavors, industry outlooks and how to reshape the contemporary practices at the center of the film photography medium today. FILM TALKS invite advanced artists, independent publishers, photo editors and art dealers, as well as the broad creative crowd of visual arts to engage in insightful dialogues with FotoFilmic about film photography in all aspects.