Coastal Drive | Scanning Film from Our Move

My Yashica Mat-124 has been my favorite camera ever since my parents gave it to me as a graduation gift. It's probably about 40 years old and used to be the official camera of a small newspaper in Michigan. It's been repaired once (the shutter was stuck open) and probably needs to be repaired again (it leaves very fine, even scratches across each image), but I find it helps me to translate my experience of a subject most successfully. That isn't to say that the translation of the subject is accurate, or rather, without the evidence of the camera's presence. In fact, it's how obvious it is that a camera was used to create the image that changes the way in which the viewer receives it. The shallow depth of field and the square format beg the viewer to connect with the photograph with a sense of nostalgia and familiarity, like a memory that comes back to you suddenly, or something you only knew from pictures; something you haven't experienced for yourself, but to which you still felt a strange connection.

Here are a few of my favorites of the shots from Mendocino. I'll be adding more as I scan them. I already want to go back.