Buon martedì Amici!
Che dirvi: sono senza parole per la bravura di Dakota!
Che sia una giornata piena della stessa passione che traspare dalle sue parole :)
Grazie di cuore a Erika, per l’impegno con cui ci regala incontri bellissimi <3
xoxo

Cari amici,
qui come sempre è la vostra Pretty per una nuova puntata di conversazioni analogiche!
Dopo un’estate impegnativa, ho il piacere di tornare tra le “pagine” della cara Zelda per presentarvi un’intervista preziosa: quella a Dakota Burns, un giovane fotografo del West Virginia che seguo silenziosamente su flickr dal lontano 2008, quando era ancora poco più che un ragazzino.
I suoi scatti in Polaroid e i suoi esperimenti con l’analogico hanno sempre avuto qualcosa di speciale per me.
L’ho trovato su facebook, ho preso coraggio, e l’ho invitato a prendere un tè nel mio salotto.
Questa è la meravigliosa intervista che ne è uscita :-)

Dear friends, it’s your Pretty here as usual, for a new episode of analogue conversations!
After a challenging summer, I have the pleasure to come back on dear Zelda’s pages to introduce a precious interview: the one with Dakota Burns, a young photographer from West Virginia that I’ve been silently following on Flickr since 2008, when he was just a kid.
His Polaroid shots and his experiments with analogue photography have always had something special to me. I found him on facebook, took courage, and I’ve invited him to have some tea in my living room. This is the wonderful interview that came out of it.

• Hi Erika, thank-you for having me!
Analog photography is quite dear to my heart. I own approximately twenty-seven analog cameras, but my top  favorites that I prefer would have to be my Canon AE-1, Holga 120N, Polaroid 600, and my Fuji Instax Wide.
My analog style is much different than my digital style. I’m a little more abstract with my analog work, I guess you could say.
I’m always adding new, as well as old cameras to my collection.  I love to search for outdated film to experiment with.

• I prefer to drink apple cinnamon tea; it is quite delicious.
I would have to say the one photo that best describes my analog style would have to be a Polaroid 600 shot of one my dear friends, Stephen Hanson.

I will break it down and explain the content of why I chose this photo.
My favorite subject to photograph are people. I love people. I simply find the appearance and lifestyle of people amazing  and inspirational. I always think to myself when photographing a person, “Will this photography portray the person in how I see them?
How they see their self? How they feel? How they live? Their purpose on this earth?” I ask myself various questions like that. When I shoot analog photographs I love how it feels like an old photograph from several years ago. I love washed out colors.
I love the emotion it brings within the photograph.
Also, the odd right side of the photograph with the unusual design shows how abstract I can be with my work. Some is manipulation and other is simply luck.

• When looking back at my photographs, it’s hard to just choose one photograph to show a sweet memory, but this one photograph, so bright and vibrant, that I shot with a simple disposable underwater camera of my lovely friends relaxing at public pool has to be one of my favorites.

It was photographed in the summer of 2011. The joy of friendship shines through in this. I constantly loved to be surrounded by my friends and my family.  They push me to work hard for my art and that means a lot. Also, this photograph reminds me to just keep having fun with whatever I’m doing in my life.

• There is one photograph that stands out to me. I had this idea in my head for quite a while. The model is one of my close friends, Kendra Ball.I photographed this with a Canon AE-1. This photograph I developed and printed all by myself. I took a Traditional Photography Level One college course by one of my favorite professors, Molly Erlandson. The lighting for the scene was quite unusual. I had such a harsh light appearing from one side, and darkness in the other, but there was something about how Kendra, the window, and cameras looked to me.
I had to give it a shot and hope for the best.  I wasn’t sure if the photo was going to come out the way I wanted it, but little did I know, it did turn out exactly the way I wanted!