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The World's Smallest Film Company

  • France
  • 2015
  • fr
  • en
  • 26'

There was Kodak in the USA, Fuji in Japan, Ilford in England, and now... Lomig Perrotin in his kitchen! Alone he created his film, called Washi. From personal research (reconnecting with 19th-century calotypes) he ended up in mass production! Now his homemade film is in great demand, Lomig spends most of his time in the darkroom, at the head of his small business...

The World's Smallest Film Company
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Synopsis

There was Kodak in the USA, Fuji in Japan, Ilford in England, and now... Lomig Perrotin in his kitchen! Alone he created his film, called Washi. From personal research (reconnecting with 19th-century calotypes) he ended up in mass production! Now his homemade film is in great demand, Lomig spends most of his time in the darkroom, at the head of his small business...

What you will find in this film

How to emulsify a film • A 1.50m² factory • Artisanal practice • The negative on Japanese paper - An orthochromatic film - A Brownie No.2 camera - Dish development

Keywords

Laboratory Analogue photogaphy
In the end, we can only expose the negative; Japanese paper film has a soul of its own.

Film chapters

00:30 Why not make your own film?

07:00 Japanese paper film has a soul of its own

12:00 Final packaging and verification of the emulsion

16:00 Digressions on the development of paper

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Behind the scenes of photography!

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The authors/artists

Lomig Perrotin
Photographer
Thomas Goupille
Film Director

Further exploration

Bibliography

Materiel used

Resources

film_washi_official

The Image Revealed– first photographs on paper in Great Britain (1840-1960) (Exhibition catalogue) - Authors: D. De Font Reaulx / Roger Taylor, publisher: Musée d’Orsay / Nicolas Chaudun, 128 pages. Paris, 2008

Japanese washi paper – Dishes – Inactinic light – Kitchen and bain-marie – Drying cabinet – Brownie No.2 camera

Washi films website