“I’ve set myself the challenge of being able to make good pictures on film, in any light. If the light is gray and dull, that can also be beautiful. I love color and only shoot in color, but I do find myself avoiding really bright or artificial colors or fluorescents. It’s less about the colors and more about the light.”
Amsterdam many photographers’ dream: it has beautiful architecture, canals reflecting water, but also ever-changing weather conditions. What is something that is great to shoot in Amsterdam?
“Again, it’s the light. The longer I live here the better I get to know it. You learn where the sun will be at a given time of day or a certain time of the year, and you learn how to shoot in low light. With all the water here, the reflections and the light bouncing off it are amazing. Also, I love all the big open windows and clean glass, especially in winter.”
Samira has been developing her own film for the last 3 years now. It gives her a better understanding of the materials and a certain control of all the steps in the process. A lot of photographers can have different views on the preparation of the compositions before even shooting the film.
“[It] is very satisfying because you become completely self-sufficient, and you learn how to tweak different parts of the process to get different results. I am always thinking about photographs; I dream about them. I rework compositions in my mind and I’m constantly looking at other people’s work trying to understand what it is about their images that work well. But when you are shooting, you often forget all that and respond intuitively to what’s around you.”
Lastly, I was interested in what Samira notices as the first thing about a photograph. For me, it’s the composition: what got into the frame and how is it organized within it. I will close this article with Samira’s answer, and a little encouragement for everyone to go through those old boxes of photographs at home and look for inspiration.
“The first thing I think about when I look at a photograph is if it intrigues me enough to want to look at it longer. I want something that makes me work a little at understanding it. I like photographs that reveal themselves slowly.”