Hi my name is Wei Ven, I am born and raised in Malaysia in Southeast Asia. I was very lucky to get a scholarship to study biology in Edinburgh, UK for my degree few years back and I backpacked on a shoestring to some countries occasionally. It is also the time when I picked up the hobby of taking photos using analogue cameras and photographic films.
This campaign is aimed to fund my transport expense from Malaysia to Tibet for my photography project using expired films.
Why expired films?
I have been collecting discontinued and expired films from eBay as they are cheaper and more importantly, I love the unexpected results from expired films due to the passage of time. As time passes, chemical changes on the films will slowly degrade the quality of films, yielding the traditionally undesired results of color-shifts (yes, red to blue and etc), grains and whatnot. But to me, all the developed photos are beautiful because they have the essence of time embodied in them. They are alive. Furthermore, I tend to think of this sort of “low-fidelity” photography as a way to give a new meaning to those unwanted and expired films.
Expired Kodak EB100, Sintra Palace, Spain
Expired Kodak film, taken in Roca Cape (The westernmost point in European continent).
Expired Redscale film, taken in the meadow, Edinburgh.
Expired Film taken in Sapa Valley, Vietnam.
A video composed of a selection of my photos can be found at
This Flickr page contains some photos taken with expired films of mine.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/129480927@N05/
Why Tibet?
To be frank, I don’t have a solid reason of why of all places I choose Tibet as the destination. I think it is one of those decisions in your life when you feel the strong urge to do something or go somewhere but without a proper reason. Nonetheless, I suspect I am attracted by everything I know about Tibet that make me want to backpack there.
Why do I need your help?
I am currently a grad student in Malaysia so I don’t have a real job and stable income yet. Some people might say that I should travel only when I am financially stable, but the rolls and rolls of expired films kept under my bed in a box don’t wait. I believe most of them will be close to unusable if I wait too long. Hence in case if I don’t reach my goal here, I will use the remaining fund to get a small portable fridge to at least slow down their deterioration!
What I have now?
A repertoire of 50 rolls of expired films.
5 different analogue cameras, some of them are older than me.
Experience in backpacking to more than 10 countries.
Passion.
What I need?
Money for transport (mainly for return flight from Malaysia to Chengdu, China followed by Qinghai-Tibet railway to reach Lhasa, Tibet in May 2015).
Your kindness to help me to spread the words!
What you will get?
The perks include:
Online access to all the photos taken during the trip on Flickr.
Printed photos of your choice (5/10/15) in 4R size.
A photo of personal shout-out with your name in Tibet captured using expired film.
A well-designed and signed photobook (Hardcover, landscape, 8.25″ x 5.3″).
Send me a film of yours and I will shoot using your film.
Please note that
I don’t develop the exposed films myself, instead I will send them to a reputable darkroom for development and scan.
There will be zero digital alteration besides scanning into my computer.
I will be shooting and shooting with at least 10 rolls of films (about 360 photos) so in case some of them don’t come out well (remember, they are expired films), I will still have enough photos to fulfill my promise to you!
Thank you for viewing my campaign!
Your kind contribution is a great boost for me to shoot more in this and other projects in the future. And please, help me to spread the words!
