I’ve been experiencing what I consider to be an issue in the current bodies of work I am working to produce. I spent most of summer 2022 photographing customs, celebrations, rituals, and practices mostly in the South of England. These are part of ongoing documentation with my collective, New Exit Group as we are working […]
Author Archives: Simon King
Simon is a London based photographer and photojournalist. He is currently working on long term personal projects, and has been shooting on 35mm film since late 2016.
You can follow his work on Instagram, or read his personal blog, both linked below.
Posted inArticles
How New Exit Group photographs community
All stories are shaped and reshaped by those who tell them, those who hear them, and that which inspired them. No story exists in a vacuum, there is always an intersecting framework of contexts by which a narrative can be understood; even when the story is about someone “outside” of society, it is still a […]
Posted inOpinion
Anatomy of a long term documentary project – by Simon King
Storytelling is an essential part of society and shapes the way we experience everything from the obvious mass media in cinema, books, music and advertising, to more subtle things like the way a restaurant might present its menu, or the way a lawyer may present a case. Stories shape us from childhood and become what […]
Posted inOpinion
Pricing your work: Economies of print, or “assigning worth when value is subjective”
When looking back on my photographs, even as “recently” far as 2019, I feel an abstraction in what my role in these images ought to be. In the moment of pressing the shutter, I feel I am the photographer, I have taken this picture.
Posted inArticles
5 Frames… From Bulgaria: Colour snapshots on Fujicolor C200 and an Olympus XA
I’ve used my Olympus XA so slowly over the last few months that I only recently developed a roll with some of the images I made with it while in Sofia, Bulgaria over Christmas 2020 last year. I still use the XA for snapshot, point-and-shoot colour images, which in Bulgaria left me with quite muted […]
Posted inReviews
Film stock review: Cinestill BWXX
I started writing this article in 2019 and left it as a draft for EM here for quite a while. The reason for this is that while I enjoy writing, I don’t often think that my “reviews” are especially the most I have to offer. I wrote a disparaging follow up to a piece I’d […]
Posted inDeveloping Film
My approach to Rodinal semi-stand film development
My film development workflow shifted in 2020 and became almost entirely based around semi-stand methods. Previously I had used ILFORD DD-X and taken great care over timings and chemistry – including for stand dev, but as I’ve found more of my projects start to come together I have not been able to dedicate myself in […]
Posted inOpinion
Focal Length Feud: 28mm vs 35mm for telling a story
Two street photographers make their case for their preferred wide-angle focal length, explaining what works to fulfill their respective vision.
Posted in5 Frames..., Articles
5 Frames… From the Peter Pan Cup Christmas Day 2019, on ILFORD Delta 3200 Professional and HP5 PLUS
The Peter Pan Cup is a yearly 100m race, a swim across the icy-cold Serpentine Lido in Hyde Park. Swimmers have met in the park every Christmas morning since 1864, and the titular “Peter Pan Cup” was first donated in 1904 by author J.M. Barrie himself. Participants must acclimatise themselves to the cold across the year, […]
Posted inArticles, Featured, Opinion
Working the Scene from Four Different Perspectives: Protest Photography by New Exit Photography Group
Expressions of civil unrest have provided many opportunities for photographers to capture the energetic, emotional scenes which are the byproduct of demonstrations, protests, riots, and other manifestations. Crowds offer such a dynamic set of possibilities that I’ve even heard some describe protests as being “cheating,” or “too easy – fish in a barrel.” While it’s […]
Posted in5 Frames..., Articles
5 Frames… Of stand developed ILFORD HP5 PLUS in DD-X at 30°c
I’ve found myself with quite a backlog to develop from the last few weeks of sun, but encountered an issue I hadn’t really faced before when developing – the heatwave we’ve been having here in the UK means that all of my chemicals would be quite a bit above the recommended 20°. Temperature is an […]
Posted inArticles, Opinion
Kodak Tri-X 400 follow-up: Does it even really matter?
I wrote an article here on EMULSIVE in April 2019 where I discussed some of the steps I made early on in my film photography process. I covered my earliest roll in 2016 to my then most recent work on Kodak Tri-X 400. I had sampled almost everything on offer by ILFORD, quite a few […]
Posted inArticles, Opinion
If sharpness truly mattered Cartier-Bresson would be a joke
White teaching a recent workshop I joked that street photography was the only genre where people would buy £3k worth of cameras and lenses and then deliberately use them to make out of focus, grainy, imperfect images. This led to a pretty interesting discussion about the merits to imperfection, and I think some of those […]
Posted inArticles, Film Notes, Film stock reviews, ILFORD Film Stock Reviews, Kodak Film Stock Reviews, Reviews
Film Notes: Current high-speed films, ILFORD Delta 3200 Professional and Kodak T-MAX P3200
I’ve often described how I think that people looking for a different “look” from film would be better suited exposing and developing in a different way before they’d see any benefit from switching emulsions. Unless someone is searching for a specific “effect” in terms of grain structure, or halation, then most films will produce fairly […]
Posted inOpinion
“Photographs” are not “Photography”
The idea I’d like to unpack in this article is based on some of the thoughts I’ve had while reflecting on my role when it comes to making photographs. I think that most of my recent writing has been produced in an effort to untangle preconceptions and assumptions that I seem to have been carrying […]
Posted inOpinion
Why shoot black and white film for documentary photography?
I’ve already written about using film in general to achieve specific goals in the genres of Street and Documentary photography, which is my chosen pursuit. However, I haven’t gone into much detail on the specifics of why black and white film specifically appeals to me currently for storytelling imagery. The association of black and white […]
Posted inOpinion
The role of film snapshots in my work
For a while now, my photography goal has been on capturing a more energetic, or emotionally resonating type of moment than my earlier style, which was a little more withdrawn, involving distant figures and light architecture. The shift to film allowed me to constantly concentrate on finding the next “worthy” scene to work, as opposed […]
Posted inOpinion
Using the language of minimalism in film photography
I am usually hesitant to assign labels on my photography, I think out of concern that a definition may limit my mentality, and…
Posted inOpinion
Lessons learned from 828 frames of 35mm film shot in India
During my recent trip to India, where I had 9 full days with which to shoot, I shot 23 rolls out of the 44 I had chosen to take. I am usually frugal with my shutter, and try and make my images in as few actuations as possible. I gave myself a little more leeway […]
Posted inOpinion
36 keepers: Working towards a perfect roll of film in India
One of the things I tried while in India was to set myself a simple challenge: to shoot a “perfect” roll of 36 exposures.
