Simone Savo
Lomographer since 2009, meet Rome-based Simone Savo, aka simonesavo, who is totally passionate about film soups and expired films. Check out his Connoisseur’s selection to help you get started with experimental analogue photography.
At the age of eight, I became interested in my father’s cameras and began taking photos and doing simple experiments. In 2009, I bought my very first camera, the Diana F+ – the plastic princess! After a short time, I found myself literally overwhelmed with all kinds of analogue cameras. Soon after, I discovered expired films and film soups.
The camera I have to recommend experimenting with is my first love, the Diana F+. With all its additional accessories, including a glass lens, you can really make the most out of it. I love combining the frames to create endless panoramas. Some other favorites of mine for capturing beautiful analogue panoramas are the Spinner 360 and the Sprocket Rocket. With these cameras, I can even expose the sprocket holes which gives surprising effects when combined with my film soups. I scan my panoramic images and exposed sprocket holes with my flatbed scanner and the DigitaLIZA 35 mm Scanning Mask.
In general, I recommend using a slow-speed film such as 100 or 200 ISO to make film soups. I mostly use the Lomography Color Negative ISO 100 – it gives faithful and grain-free images, the colors are natural and the contrast is well-balanced. This film also performs very well indoors.
Here’s a fun Italian recipe I came up with: the Film Pasta Amatriciana!
- Cook together tomatoes, guanciale (cured pork cheek), pepper and pecorino cheese.
- Put three tablespoons of this sauce aside and add a bit of hot water to it. Mix in until it’s more liquid.
- Marinate a new, unexposed roll of Lomography Color Negative 100 in this sauce for approximately two hours.
- Take the film canister out of the sauce and let it dry.
The simplest, but also the longest, method is to leave it to dry on its own. On average this takes a couple of weeks. For a faster drying process, you would have to remove the film from the canister in complete darkness. Regardless of the drying technique you use, the results will still be the same. It’s important to note that the longer you let your film marinate, the more extreme your results will be!
All photos were taken by Simone Savo. You can follow him on Lomography and Instagram.