Fred Braakman
“What I like about analog photography is the mystery of the process involved that results in an artistic image. Analog photography is no longer common and well-known. Yet the final image is what creates the most satisfaction for me.” – Fred
Fred Braakman has always had an interest in the arts, even through his professional career as a process chemist. In addition to analogue photography, he has cultivated an interest in watercolour and oil painting. Across all mediums, Fred’s subject matter tends to be been predominantly the urban and rural landscape.
Although Fred has been shooting film and printing in the darkroom throughout his life, he recently re-joined the Monochrome Guild as an active member, honing his film and darkroom printing. In the darkroom, he enjoys testing film and developer combinations, using a step tablet to create film curves that indicate the characteristics of the film/developer combinations. He plots this data in a software program to generate curves and graphs, which are useful to determine exposures of scenes and the development conditions of the resulting negatives.
Fred is currently an active member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, contributing work to the federation in recent years. He has also been a participant with the Strathcona Art Society, and has participated in photography submissions to various galleries as part of the Monochrome Guild.
Currently, Fred shoots with a large format view camera and a Hasselblad medium format camera. When shooting monochrome, his favourite black and white films are Ilford FP4+ and Delta 100. In year ahead, Fred hopes is to become familiar with alternative methods in photography, including platinum/palladium, gum-over-platinum, and wet plate collodion.
