Shot on expired efke IR820 film.

Usually I post descriptions of the places I photograph. Today, however, the location is not particularly important nor interesting. These photos were shot on a roll of expired Efke IR820 film. Efke was a brand of film manufactured by Fotokemika in Samobor, a small town next to Zagreb.

Efke was synonymous with photography in Yugoslavia, and Fotokemika produced Efke film for over 60 years, using the same formula which eventually gave it a very recognizable, “retro” look. When I first started shooting film I almost exclusively shot on Efke rolls. I also learned to process film and develop prints using Efke paper and chemicals – they were the cheapest and most accessible (thanks to my high school professor who gave me the school’s leftover chemical stock!). I did not particularly consider how amazing it was that photographic film was still being made so close to me, nor how significant it was in terms of our culture, history and industrial heritage.

Fotokemika ceased all production in 2012. An attempt to save some of the equipment and remains of the old factory failed; everything that was left ended up in the dump. This summer I was looking through my old things in Zagreb and I came across an expired roll of Efke IR820 infrared film. I only shot infrared once before and I found it pretty cumbersome, but this was an unexpected opportunity to shoot a roll of Efke film one last time. These photos were shot around Brooklyn during September 2017 using an IR filter. They are somewhat blurry and messy, since I did not use a tripod. However, I hoped to gesture towards a past experience that is both personal and collective, a piece of material history that is now gone.