Jazz Age Lawn Party - West Side Story - Instax

Super 8 + 16mm + Polaroids

September 3, 2019

Back at it again with this year’s trip to the marvelous Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governor’s Island in New York City. For those unaware, the Jazz Age Lawn Party is a yearly event taking place on a weekend in both in June and August where you travel out to the really beautiful island off the southern tip of Manhattan and have a day filled with jazz, champagne and dancing. Everyone dresses up in their finest 1920’s threads (some of it is genuine vintage clothing from the time period!) and enjoy a day relaxing.

I always go with the amazing Penumbra Foundation’s tintype booth they run every year. They shoot actual tintypes on large format 4x5 and 5x7 cameras. I document their booth as well as the event on Super 8 and this year I added some 16mm into the mix as well. The Super 8 was B&W Tri-X self-processed at MONO NO AWARE, a cinema arts non-profit I work with in Brooklyn, and the 16mm was color negative shot on a Bolex H16 and processed/scanned at the new Kodak NYC lab! You can see some of the footage from the day below!

A fun little snippet in there is when part of the cast of the upcoming Broadway show and Steven Spielberg directed film adaptation of West Side Story. Probably around 8 of the cast members were at the event just enjoying the day and couldn’t help but get a tintype of the crew to immortalize the day. They were a lot of fun and really loved their tintype. I later caught a portrait of two of them on some instant film which is featured at the top of this post.

Aside from documenting on motion film, I always can’t resist bringing a few still cameras to take some portraits because the outfits are always incredible. I brought along a Polaroid 110B with some Instax Wide film as well as a modified Instax Wide 300. Bringing along cameras that were at least closer to the correct time period (albeit still from the 50s technically) is a treat because they always get a lot of looks and questions as I walk around with them.

Also, while helping out the Penumbra Foundation with their booth, the tintype studio manager, Jolene Lupo, and I devised a very McGyver’d way to shoot a “mug shot” type double exposure on a single plate. Took a lot of ingenuity and several extra hands but the results were exactly as we’d hope for! This is the flipped scan since with a tintype, everything comes out inverted.

In the end, it was a hot but fun weekend to test out lots of different cameras and chat with some really inspiring artists working on their craft. And be sure to check out the previous years I’ve gone: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015.

Jazz Age Lawn Party 2018 // Super 8 + Polaroids + 120

August 17, 2018

Michael Arenella's Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governor's Island in NYC every summer is such a fantastic time. People dressed to the nine's in 1920's outfits (some authentic!), great jazz, old cameras... it's a great combo. So getting to help out the Penumbra Foundation shoot tintypes at the event and capture it all on Super 8, Polaroids and 120 is a swell time for sure. Take a gander at the Super 8 I shot below!

This was the 4th year I've attended the event and the third time helping the Penumbra Foundation's Tintype Studio out at the event. (You can see my previous Super 8 and film photos for 2017, 2016 & 2015) Penumbra shoots actual tintypes on location at the event using 4x5 or 5x7 cameras and people can walk out of the event with a tintype in hand. People are always quite surprised that the format is still around similar to their reaction to me shooting Polaroids and Super 8. Some of the Penumbra crew like to call tintypes the 19th century "Polaroid" as it takes merely a few minutes for the finished photo to be seen.

The last few years, I've helped them out and documented both the event and their booth on Super 8 using a Nizo 801 Macro camera and some Kodak Tri-X film. Never one to travel light on cameras, I also like to bring along other cameras since portrait worthy people are plentiful so I brought my Polaroid 110B with my Instax Wide back and peelapart back with some expired Polaroid 664 film which had mixed results. Also brought my Polaroid 680SLR and then a Mamiya 7 I borrowed from a friend for the weekend to try out since I've never really shot 120 film. Needless to say from the results below but that camera is sharp! Combined with some expired Tri-X and some Fujifilm Pro 400H film in there, it really shined.

Jazz Age 120 portait - Mamiya 7 (Kodak Tri-X).jpg

This year I opted to process the Super 8 film I shot myself with some help from Steve Cossman of Mono No Aware (which is a great cinema arts non-profit based in NYC which teaches tons of workshops on filmmaking on actual film). I used an old Russian processing tank called a Lomo tank which is similar to Patterson tanks for still photography. I was nervous but the processing went great and you can see from the results above the Super 8 came out well. Eager to process more film now!

I'll be missing out on the festivities this weekend but I'm sure I'll be back in 2019! Many thanks to the Penumbra Foundation for the opportunity! And I'll leave you with a few shots of my Penumbra buds for the weekend.

NYC Film Meetup with Brooklyn Film Camera // Super 8 + Polaroids

January 23, 2018

With film having a somewhat of a resurgence these past few years, it's no surprise that a bit of a community has formed online to share images, films, and banter. Also shops promoting film like Brooklyn Film Camera and Lomography have been doing their part as well.

Kyle Depew of Brooklyn Film Camera @upsidewalkdown

Julien Piscioneri of Brooklyn Film Camera @julsdylan

Frank Dautant of Lomography NYC @frankdtnt

Christian Polt of Lomography NYC @poltone

Last fall in NYC, the two shops organized a picnic for any film and analog lovers to get together and hang out in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Probably 100+ people showed up and about three times as many cameras! It was a great time and I shot a variety of Polaroids that day as well as a roll of expired Plus-X Super 8 film to remember the event with.

@gramdole

@catherinemcwilliams

@dudemanhouse

@stuzphotography

As far as the variety of cameras, there were Polaroid Land cameras with peelapart film, Polaroid SX-70s, Hasselblads, Contax 645, a Mamiya 7, a WIDELUX, plenty of Lomography cameras, a Hasselblad tintype camera by Kevin Scott, a few odd 35mm cameras, and of course, my Polaroid 110B and my Nizo 801 Macro Super 8 camera. In the 110B I shot with expired Polaroid 669 peelapart film which is really lovely as well as some Impossible Project B&W 600 film.

Geoffrey Berliner of Penumbra Foundation @geoffreyberliner

Curtis Willcocks of ICP @curtiswillcocks

Phil V of @polaroidsofpeople

Cory Marr @therealcorymarr

It was really cool seeing the different cameras and chatting with everyone about film. Dave Bias of Film Ferrania (which is doing their best to recreate color reversal Super 8 film) hosted a small raffle for bags of film goodies from a ton of different film companies like Film Ferrania, BFC, Lomography, Polaroid Originals, Mike Padua, and tons of other little patches and what not. And of course no gathering of film photographers is complete without a group Polaroid from Nick McManus.

Enjoy the Super 8 film from the event below and looking forward to more film meetups in 2018!

Jazz Age Lawn Party 2017 // Super 8 + Polaroids

August 27, 2017

Definitely one of the most fun events to shoot on anything analog is the amazing Jazz Age Lawn Party every summer on Governor's Island in NYC. Once again, I was helping out the amazing crew at the Penumbra Tintype Studio by documenting on Super 8 their hard work shooting tintypes of guests and shooting Polaroids of the VIP guests.

Although as some people may point out, Super 8 didn't really surface until many decades after the 20's, it's still a very fitting format to shoot and especially seeing the final result projected is something special. So I shot using my favorite camera, the Nizo 801 Macro and I also opted to shoot some Impossible Project film and some Instax Wide in my custom Polaroid 110B from the 1950s.

With the instant film I opted for just portraits as for this event, the costumes and outfits are second to none! Some people are wearing genuine 1920s outfits they've scoured the planet for so they are quite a treat to shoot. And these days, Impossible Project's black & white film is really lovely. Sadly can't be shooting peelapart Fujifilm FP-3000B like I used to with it being $60/pack now!

Nonetheless, I shot a bit of the Penumbra crew in action shooting 4x5 and 5x7 tintypes and even managed to get one of myself at the end of the weekend. I'm not the most photogenic person, often being told I have a sad face... BUT the tintype master, Jolene, managed to get a solid portrait of me. It's really stunning. I returned the favor by shooting portraits of some of the Penumbra crew.

In the back of the event in the VIP section was analog guru Geoffrey Berliner with Curtis Wilcocks shooting peelapart Polaroids with Fujifilm FP-100C and his incredible Graflex Super D. He may correct me on that... The portraits have a wildly shallow depth of field and ultimately have a dream-like quality to them. In the main area was everything from vintage clothing shops, dancing, live jazz bands and even a mobile barbershop doing hot shaves! Michael Arenella is always at the front, directing the band and singing along with some special guests and the Dreamland Follies always have a few choreographed dances throughout the day in some marvelous vintage-styled outfits.

With a quick break to grab some food and drinks with my wife and a few friends who stopped by the event, it was quite the weekend. Not as hot as last August so that was a welcome reprieve. Perhaps one day I'll be behind the large format camera making tintypes... just have to learn how to first!

Women's March protest washington nyc 7.jpg

Women's March on Washington (NYC) 2017 // Super 8 + Polaroids

July 12, 2017

Without a doubt, we are in a very tumultuous time and that gives us all the more reason to document and discuss the happenings of today. This was no more apparent than the Women's March on Washington in January of 2017 where millions of people of all genders, races and ages marched together for a cause they believed in. It was an emotional day and truly inspiring to see so many people hitting the pavement in an age where armchair activism is the preferred method of making one's voice heard. The edited film is below.

I attended the Women's March in NYC (although it happened at many cities around the country if not the world) and brought along my Instax Wide 300 camera along with my Canon 814XL-S with some Tri-X to document this momentous march. I also opted to bring along a small sound recorder to capture some of the march's chants and cheers.

I started out near 45nd and 3rd where it was supposed to start I think and it was at a dead standstill. I guess getting the locomotive going took a lot of effort. Nevertheless, people were in good spirits and ready to make their voices heard. We did eventually start moving and making our way to 42nd St then across to 5th Ave then up where it finished at Trump Tower at 59th St. The entire march went on for hours and was strong throughout. As can be seen by these photos and the Super 8 film, there will tens of thousands of people out to march. Most likely the most people I've ever seen gathered in the streets in my entire life.

The signage throughout the day was truly incredible and there were some really clever signs out there. I wish I had documented more individuals at the march to be honest but was a bit swept up in the event and the energy. I know everyone that may read this blog may not agree and that's ok but I hope that the American people can still continue to feel energized for positive political and social change for humanity. Progress definitely isn't an easy path but it's a worthwhile one.

Super 8mm and Polaroid work featured on

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