#FP4Party March 2020 winner announcement

Welcome to the community picked winner and runners-up of March 2020’s FP4Party. Over 900 individual entries and 1200+ photos posted over March 16th to 22nd were whittled down to just 21 in the March 20202 shortlist announcement. Of those, three were selected by you, the film photography community for third, second and first place.

Thanks to everyone who took part. Here’s the countdown.

~ EM, Diz and Sandeep

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3rd place

Henry Balen – @henry_balen

Fisheye making everything look like its shot on a GoPro now.
FP4 EI1600, HC110DilB, 19.5 mins, 21deg. #FP4Party @FP4Party

2nd place

Morag Perkins – @moragperkins

Last two #FP4Party shots – I think these are my favourites from the roll:
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Ilford FP4+
Canon EOS 300
Canon EF 100mm macro

1st place

David S Allen – @DBloomsday

FP4Party Day 1:
This is a negative scratched by friend and tattoo artist. I’ve been wanting to collaborate with him on this “Indelible” series for some time now, @FP4Party was a good excuse to do our first-ever test!
( 4×5 | EI 500 | Ultrafin T-Plus )

I asked David to tell us a little more about the photograph. Actually, I should say that, I asked David to make a stop motion video of him on the toilet of the cardboard doll’s house he built and he sent me some words and pictures instead. Here goes:

Is it weird if I said, “I love you”? Because, I do.

In 100% sincerity, FP4 Party is one of the things I most look forward to regarding this community. First of all, FP4 PLUS is my favorite emulsion. It’s my deserted island emulsion, my ride-or-die silver halide. Secondly, I really enjoy looking at the fun, diverse work that comes from the community. You all rock. And during FP4 party people seem to just make images they want to make—which is exactly what it’s all about. As much gatekeeping as there can be in the world of photography, I don’t get that from you all. The simple celebration of a shared love of an artistic medium makes my heart bellow songs of joy.

But, lastly, for me, FP4 party is an excuse to make up for typically poor photographic productivity. I don’t actually shoot as much as people think I do. I get too much into my own head with ideas, concepts, and the like. So, I take FP4 Party as a time to force myself to be productive, and breath life into ideas that have been floating around, no matter how silly, conceptual, or full-frontal they may be. An idea that had been in my head for over three years was to have my good friend, Charbel, a professional tattoo artist, to scratch tattoos onto negatives of naked people. And, after three years, there was no time like FP4 party to try it.

So, I took a simple image of my wife’s back, and let Charbel do ALL the actual hard work. He came over for dinner, I made American-style hot wings (he lived in the US for a time and longed for high cuisine of the old country), and he went to scratching. He was amazed at how much he liked the process. While scratching a serpent, he declared “I’m going to do the scales. I didn’t think I would, but I’m going to. I’m going to scale it. You can’t stop me!”

We were really surprised with the results. But what surprised me more was the response from you all (even prior to voting). The photo itself was simple—a rather straight-forward shot of my wife’s back. So, I wasn’t sure if a celebration of photography would celebrate concept around a simple image. I was wrong and humbled.

And, when EM contacted me to say that you all chose it as your favorite of the slew of AWESOME shots curated by a crack team of FP4 sleuths, my humble shock was rekindled. I immediately called Charbel, because, you know, HE DID ALL THE HARD WORK (details, psht). We even tried filming a zoom call together to tell you how much we both appreciate the love… but the audio wasn’t up to snuff.

Anyway, we both thank you all for your love on our concept. And, now, with that affirmation, we hope to keep collaborating on scratched negatives. And, I hope that you all, in the same way, keep pushing forward in the cool work I saw during FP4 Party. Don’t let anyone tell you how to shoot, what to shoot with, or how to do it… unless they tell you to shoot FP4 Plus. Then, perhaps, you should listen.

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Thanks again to everyone who took part. There’s talk of a “pre-COVID-19” FP4 Party in June. Think you’d be up for that? Your thoughts in the comments section below, please.

~ EM