I’ve always loved experimenting, so immersion into liquids of analog photography led me to the experimental playground of black and white photography with colorful roller coaster waiting just for me to enter. So, let me briefly explain this paradox.

Color film has different emulsion layers where each of them registers various parts of the color, to form the correct color. However, the color film also includes light sensitive silver halide crystals that are integral part of black and white film as well. The presence of silver halide crystals in color film makes it possible to get an image from the color film with the use of black and white developer. It came to my attention that black and white developer Rodinal can function as a weak color developer, thus bringing a slight portion of original color back to life.

So I picked up Kodak Portra 400 and 160 and entered the colorful black and white roller coaster ride. I shot both rolls of film and used standard development times for color film. The results were astonishing. Both color films produced some images with evident black to white tonality and a hint of purple hue. Although the results were not entirely consistent, since not every photograph turned purplish (Portra 400 happened to be more prone to the effect than Portra 160), I enjoyed the ride!

Something in the way
Dream sequence
Grainy depth of field
D-day upon us
Almighty forest invasion