Holga Blog

To kick start our new ‘photographer of the month’ series, we have one of the most innovative holga photographers out there…

Wallace Billingham was born and raised in a small town called Laurel in Maryland halfway between Baltimore and Maryland. As a child in the 1970s it was much more rural than it is today. One of his greatest joys as a boy was playing in the deep woods and along the creeks that ran behind his house. Several times a year he would get to visit his mother’s family in rural Virginia in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and his father’s family along the rocky cost of Maine. During these trips his love for the water and the natural world grew very deep.

His love for flowing streams was formed at a young age when he would accompany his Uncle Wallace (whom he was named after) along the flowing streams of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. The two would often hike for many miles and spend all day out in the woods. Uncle Wallace also showed him the magic of photography and darkroom work. During High School he continued to work on photography taking classes at his school, and working with a wedding and event photographer as an assistant. It was a great part time job while going to school.

He left Maryland and lived in Colorado and Ohio for a while before settling in North West Pennsylvania almost 15 years ago. One of the great things about living there was the woods and streams. The area was heavily glaciated during the last ice age and that has left behind lush green valleys full of hardwoods and countless flowing streams bubbling over the rubble left behind from the rivers of ice.

He struggled for a long time to find a camera system to capture the mood and feelings he had when he was out in the woods and streams. He loved to shoot with Large Format B&W film and create B&W Images but was always afraid to take such cameras close to the water and the difficulty of moving and carrying such cameras around in the deep woods was a struggle. Smaller format cameras were very portable but did not yield the results he was looking for. Digital capture was interesting but electronics and water don’t mix well.

Along the way in his photography he found a Diana Camera at a flea market back in the 1980s and loved it. He would also shoot with lots of vintage cameras. At some point in the late 1990s he found out about the Holga and got one. He enjoyed using it very much but never took using toy cameras seriously. He found them fun to play with and he liked the results but at the end of the day they were just not serious enough.

That all changed for him a three years ago when Freestyle Photo and Efke brought back medium format IR820 Infrared film in Medium Format to the US market. If you ask him you he will tell you it started out as a whim. He ordered a few rolls and thought he would try them in a Holga. He looked all over the Internet and could not find any relevant information about them. So he wasted a few rolls trying to figure out the exposure but what he saw he liked so he ordered a few more. It turned out that using the Efke IR820 film with a Hoya R72 filter results in a really slow film, that when combined with a Holga create dreamy soft images with dreamy IR effects and unbelievable tonality. Over the next few months he discovered that the Holga and the IR film were the perfect choice to shoot what he wanted in the woods and in the streams. Since the Holga is so light there was no issues with bringing them into the field and since they do not have any electronics water is not a major concern.

Over the past 3 years he has adopted a special and unique workflow that he could really not have done with any other camera system. The first thing viewers notice is that just about all of his photographs are taken of water, upon a closer look you will find that most of them are taken from the water. He actually wades into the streams, lakes, and ponds he photographs sets up his tripod with the camera only a few inches above the water and makes the shot. Several times his tripod has fallen into the water and the Holgas take a deep dive but since they are not electronic they are good as new once they dry out. He also works very slow and methodical, using the same style of shooting that he did when shooing with large format gear.

Over the past few years in addition to several gallery shows, he has been honored to have his Holga work featured in several magazines including writing a regular feature for Lightleaks Magazine and was most recently featured in the March 7th 2009 edition of Amatuer Photographer Magazine in the UK. You can see more of Wallace’s work on his Gallery site at http://www.thoumyvision.com, or on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/eye_of_wally He also has an informational site where you can find more info about how he works at http://www.theplasticlandscape.com