After taking a year off to regroup the chat is back and we are kicking it off with the awesome Lauren aka @coolperolike on the instagram. She is a rad photographer and human in the Bay Area, but I will let her speak for her self :)

"hi i’m lo! i don’t know how to talk about myself so i guess i’ll start with i’m a photographer and i shoot everything from instant photos to large format to super 8! i love learning about new mods my friends make, learning about the people i take portraits of, and learning what i enjoy the most during the process. meeting and growing with the community of people i’ve met has been my favorite part of photography so far. everyone has a different journey and a different story to tell. i can’t wait to expand on this beautiful community in the bay area and beyond!"

Matthew s a wicked awesome cat, so much fun to chat it out with him. He shared how he got started with film photography and his connection to skateboarding with it. We talked about punk music and going to live shows. He shared how he get involved with Filmphotographic and his involvement with Our City which was a cool exhibition. Then we finished off with being old but still rocking skate style haha. Matt was wicked rad. Looking forward to seeing him at PolaCon Bay Area in 2023.

“A little about me, I’ve been photographing in general since I was 15 started with skateboarding because I wasn’t a strong skater but they gang needed a filmer and photog so I got into it. Live in a small northern ca town called Rio Vista which is on the CA delta. I got back into primarily shooting film in 2015-16 when I joined Instagram and found out a lot of people still shot it and found some great communities. I’ve been lucky to be apart of 3 filmphotographic group shows. As of recent I was BetterOff Zine’s feature no. 6 photographer and currently enjoy going to different areas of CA when I can and documenting what I see.”

Follow Matthew at https://www.instagram.com/mattoriousfilmphoto/

Photography Chat is a weekly Instagram Live @merlindb hosts every Thursday at 5pmPST/8pmEST

Give me a follow if you want to see the episodes live https://www.instagram.com/merlindb/

I am so glad to have finally connected with @irisxsagitta she is so rad to chat with. She shared with us how she got started with photography. Then we got into social media and the relationships that we have with different platforms. From there we got into the intention of shooting, the importance of the tangible, and creating images just for yourself. We got into film stocks and then Polaroid. Such a rad time hanging out with Iris, I hope y’all enjoy this chat!

'Iris Sagitta is a Hungarian-American queer photographer and model based in Manhattan specializing in self-portraiture and film photography. She strives to depict intimacy and beauty in and out of the studio through layered compositions and cinematic colors. Sagitta constantly experiments with new formats of film and post-processing techniques to evoke nostalgia in every audience.'

Follow Iris at https://www.instagram.com/irisxsagitta/

Photography Chat is a weekly Instagram Live @merlindb hosts every Thursday at 5pmPST/8pmEST

Give me a follow if you want to see the episodes live https://www.instagram.com/merlindb/