 Yo what up welcome back to another episode of my least popular series 10 questions for photographers I'm your host Jason and with me today is Chris Bartolucci. Hey Jason thanks for having me. How's it going Chris? It's good. You may know Chris from her work on our YouTube channel as well as co-host on the popular film photography podcast Analog Talk featuring guests like Matt Day, Nick Carver and well we just had Ben Horne. Okay I hadn't finished my thought but whatever this interview isn't off to a very good start. I don't think so either. Do you think it's important for successful photographers to find a style and when do you plan on finding yours? Wow um well I think yeah I mean it's important to to have a style in the sense like you want your work to speak for itself it's really great when somebody can identify you or your work by your images as far as my style you know I'll go back to you. Family, engagement and wedding photography have you ever considered funeral photography? I know I haven't but I know it's actually a thing people do document funerals. I've done it. I've gone to a lot of funerals. It's terrible. Uninvited. Besides PCP what drugs do you do to counter photography burnout? I drink a lot of wine. Hell yeah. I would say that that's my answer. Film was like kind of like a reawakening for me because you know you shoot Portrait 400 that's a certain look you shoot black and white that's a different look but I think in general challenging yourself is always good if you're in a rut to say okay well I've never tried this film let me go shoot this role and see what it's all about or a new subject you know if you're you know you're a rut and having shot portraits try that if you're you know tried landscape you haven't really done that. I mean the podcast for me is actually one of the greatest inspirations because we get to talk to so many awesome people you know I every time we wrap up episode I'm like oh I gotta go shoot all this stuff because I'm just like so fired up so yeah find outlets that you can like draw from like YouTube podcast whatever so I am a co-host of the analog talk podcast the film photography podcast with Timothy Ditzler. How we came about our story is a little funny I always wanted to start a film photography podcast so I was kind of reaching out to people who might want to be a co-host I really didn't know what I was doing at the time we've been doing it for two and a half years now which is crazy we've been lucky enough to talk to people like Jason Lee, Ben Horn, yeah it's it's really fun it's like I said before does keep me inspired because all these people get to talk to it's great to talk to people who are just as nerdy as you are about your favorite thing so it's really fun and we're lucky. So you had Jason Leon. Yeah. When are you gonna have Kendall Jenner on? Hmm because of this? No. Can I ask her about this? She's a very accomplished photographer I don't even know what camera she uses. It's this. Oh. Your current photography portfolio or your third grade macaroni art which one are your parents more proud of? Well my mom's proud of like everything so would be very torn between but I hope she would pick the portfolio. If you see a dude walking down the street with a huge lens like maybe he's hunching over a little do you go introduce yourself or do you keep walking? This is another really good question because I have like there's like okay well I'm a camera nerd so I probably would introduce myself. Yeah. I mean I'm sure it happens to you people are always still shocked that like film is like even exists so people will be like is that a film camera like can you still get film for that which is always a crazy question because we know like yes and there's new film coming out and this and this and then we want to like go into like I'm like let me educate you really quick let me tell you where to go to get film let me tell you where to go to get a process but yeah it does happen which is you know. You used to do a lot of wedding photography shot on film have you ever mixed up the roles and accidentally delivered the wrong set of photos like maybe instead of pictures of their ceremony the happy couple got polaroids of the aftermath of a violent crime you committed? No that never happened. Ever? No. We'll see. Okay first wedding I ever shot it was a friend of mine who was a second shooter for this guy in our like town actually and he was like I can't do it this Friday like can you do it and I was like no I can't shoot would you crazy I can't like shoot away it's crazy remember I took the job and I sat in the car and I had a almost full-blown panic attack and then I was like all right I'm done and I like got out of the car and went and shot my first wedding because it's just like you got to do it you know the more you do portraits and get comfortable with people the the better the portrait will be. I mean I was shooting weddings with the contacts 645 if you're familiar with that camera it's like I've never heard of it. All right well it's an amazing 645 medium format camera that the images are incredible to come out of it so I would say for the actual wedding and the formals I would always switch to digital for the dancing stuff but I would always try to shoot film for the majority of the day especially in the daylight. Can you address the rumors circulating around that you used to own a Context 645 but you sold it for booze and gambling money? I definitely didn't sell it for booze or gambling money. That's what I'm what I've been hearing. Who's telling you who's saying that? So the awesomeness of that camera is it definitely has a certain look um the dreamy like super blown out background or like blurry background lots of bokeh. I'd say pros is it makes incredible images. Cons for me is it was a little big I'm small so it's heavy. It's Carl's Ice Lens so they're they're just super sharp. Yeah shout out to my boy Carl. Yeah uh the homie. The thing is now they're so expensive. I bought mine for 35 and I think I sold it for like 37 but now they're like 45-5000 and they could break and you know it's one of those things that if it breaks you probably can't get it fixed so it's a bummer but it's also a sign of the community and like the resurgence so it's like it's one of those things where I'm you know I'm bummed about it but I'm also glad people are out there shooting and getting their hands on film and keeping it alive. I'm hoping they go down they seem to be they fluctuate so you kind of got to wait it out but that's hard. What is your dream camera and why is it you'll never own it? Well I hope I own it someday. I would say I would want the 645 someday back. Pentax 67 is up there too. This one? Yeah this one right here. Don't touch it please. How would you define your photographic style street casual or Freudian-esque psychosexually satanic? I would say probably not any of those specifically I consider myself a portrait photographer just overall even if I'm you know I obviously shoot other things as well but people has always been what brought me to photography why I love it so I would say I'm a portrait photographer. That's my style. How many film cameras do you own and how many do you need before you can take a photo? Funnily enough just one. You just need one camera? You just need one to take a photo. You have too many cameras. Way too many to count. Yeah so that's saying a lot about me. I think I have a problem actually. I think it says something yeah about all of us. Well that's it thanks for stopping by the interview. Thanks for having me. Since you interview guests on your podcast how did I do as an interviewer? Maybe use a little work. What do you mean? Maybe a little passive-aggressive.