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<\/a>\u201cIt was like a miracle, seeing a blank sheet of paper suddenly having an image on it,\u201d Weiss said, romanticizing his first experience in a darkroom at his cousin\u2019s house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By his early twenties, Weiss was deep in New York’s frenetic rush for celebrity and fashion. Without formal pathways into the glossy magazines, he navigated through event PR networks, offering to photograph events for agencies so his work could be seen in Women\u2019s Wear Daily<\/em>. One morning after photographing a high-profile event, he delivered contact sheets to the editor, who not only published them but told him he\u2019d like to hire him for future projects. That day marked the start of a career spanning Vogue,<\/em> NYT<\/em> and behind the velvet ropes of pop culture\u2019s upper echelon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before long, Weiss found himself brushing shoulders with the elite. Not every encounter was pleasant\u2014he recalls moments of rudeness, like a sour exchange with Madonna\u2014but others left him with lasting warmth. While photographing backstage at the Grammys for The New York Times<\/em>, he crossed paths with Beyonc\u00e9. Expecting a carefully guarded star, he was struck instead by her openness. When he asked to take her portrait, she agreed without pretense, leaving him with an impression that has stayed with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe was so just so polite and was like \u2018I hope it turns out good,\u2019\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What propelled his work from snapshots to artifacts was his approach: like a surfer, he waited for the perfect wave\u2014the decisive visual moment. Surrounded by photogs flashing relentlessly in the chaos of film-era event lighting, he learned to be quiet, respectful, invisible, patient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even today, Weiss shoots film, not for nostalgia but for its mindful precision. And though the process is more involved than digital, the photography veteran declares that film remains gratifying. While portraiture is still his first love, he now mostly captures Northern California\u2019s landscapes for pleasure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love going out to Death Valley and chasing the light with a 4×5 view camera,\u201d Weiss said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Film photography\u2019s decline was dramatic but not total. In the U.S., photography reporter Pete Brook discovered sales of film cameras plummeted from 19.7 million units in 2000 to under 250,000 by 2010. Camera brands, labs and empires disintegrated. Kodachrome processing ended in 2010, and the last roll developed in a Kansas lab in January 2011, according to a Wikipedia article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But analog isn\u2019t dead, and the market has slowly revived. By 2023, global film production rose 18% year-over-year, distributing over 20 million rolls worldwide, according to Market Growth Reports. Gen Z and millennials are embracing film for its authenticity, imperfections, and \u201cromantic mistakes\u201d like grain and light leaks, journalist Ellie Violet Bramley reported last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Why? It’s not just visuals, it\u2019s the process. Film photography demands presence: manual loading, focused composition, and timed exposures. Both Ma\u0107kowiak and Weiss say that \u201cDigital fatigue,\u201d \u201cdopamine overload,\u201d and the desire for slow craft propel film\u2019s resurgence. Analog photography offers delayed gratification, mindfulness, and a tangible artifact in a commodified digital flood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet constraints remain: fewer than 1,200 full-service labs worldwide (in 2023), processing delays, and rising costs challenge the analog revival, another Market Growth Report states. Still, art schools, workshops and analog festivals are growing fast. East Bay Photo Collective, for example, is an Oakland-based nonprofit aiming to provide inspiration, education and community through photography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tomek Ma\u0107kowiak\u2019s relationship to film is hands-on. A self-identified technical person, Ma\u0107kowiak found grounding in the analog process when other art forms like painting proved to be too challenging for him. He shoots plenty in his free time, but his main focus is vintage camera collection. He collects, repairs and rebuilds everything from WWII-era Leicas to medium and large format systems, with the hope of providing film photographers with access to working tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s my little way of giving back to the film community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He sees analog photography as an accessible form of high art. One roll only yields one or two perfect frames\u2014but those frames become cherished and more meaningful. Film demands precision, offers physicality, and gives emotional rewards that the fast shooting nature of digital cannot, he argues. In a world of instant everything, Ma\u0107kowiak says analog is deliberate beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tomek invited Weiss into what began as a solo camera show because he admired his extensive body of high-profile work. On Sept. 6 from 5 to 10pm, upstairs at Black & Brown (751 W. San Carlos), attendees will browse grids of Weiss\u2019s celebrity portraits\u2014fashion icons, musicians, political figures. They\u2019ll also see Tomek\u2019s restored vintage cameras. The two photographers hope the show can inspire people wanting to learn more about the world of film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI hope people can feel that my work touches a part of their soul,\u201d Weiss said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Eric Weiss\u2019s 1990s portraits and rows of vintage cameras will transform Black and Brown in San Jose into a gallery alive with analog energy, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14789,"featured_media":20183890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[1775],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\nChasing the Light<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Accessible High Art<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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