Michael J.P. Hall - Featured Photographer

Film buff turned photographer, Michael Hall's photos offer more than still imagery. Sit back and learn how this hybrid of film and photography came to be.



IN FIFTY WORDS OR LESS, TELL US WHO YOU ARE.
I am a human being, an adventurer, image maker and writer. I strive to see and photograph what's right in the world.


WHAT WAS THE INITIAL MOMENT THAT IGNITED YOUR PASSION TOWARDS PHOTOGRAPHY?
I was drawn into image-making through movies. Back in high-school I was watching a film or two a day and I'd spend friday and saturday nights at a local cable station learning how to edit. I examined a lot of frames throughout those years, and I fell in love with pictures. I loved the colours, the shapes, the stories, and tensions - these images contained an entire language! Sometimes, in great movies, a frozen film frame would contain everything the whole scene was attempting to say. I loved how much information was contained in one picture. I also discovered that I liked shooting images a lot better then sitting in dark rooms with hot machines and bad posture.


HOW IMPORTANT IS PHOTO EDITING SOFTWARE TO YOU?
Post-processing is essential with digital. Shooting on film gives images flavour. Choosing to shoot on kodachrome, velvia, or negative film, then processing as reversal, pushing, pulling, dodging and burning produces a print with distinct characteristics. The image rhymes with reality, but it was altogether different at the same time; heightened and more significant. As a film shooter the flavour is built into the process, with the digital shooting I use software to create that flavour.


IF NOT A PHOTOGRAPHER, WHAT WOULD YOU BE?
If I couldn't be a photographer, I would like to be a well-funded adventurer.


WHAT PEICE OF ADVICE COULD YOU OFFER TO ASPIRING PHOTOGRAPHERS?
I could only offer what I've noticed in my own work: that any good photo I've ever taken has been the result of being present.