Analogue Photography With Sacha de Boer

Sacha de Boer on analogue photography

Sacha de Boer is a journalist and photographer. She became well known as one of the regular faces of the NOS News. Alongside her editorial work on the eight o'clock news she worked freelance as a photographer. After 21 years she stopped her journalistic career and focused on photography assignments.

The former journalist now works full-time as a photographer, and very successfully. Sacha mainly photographs portraits, documentary and food photography. She creates both personal and commissioned work for, among others, NRC, National Geographic Traveler and various publishers. She exhibits regularly and is happy to tell us more about her passion for (analogue) photography.

"It began with the Agfa Clack I received as a birthday gift on my seventh."

Learning the craft from the neighbour

"We lived in Amsterdam, next door to photographer Eddy de Jongh who had become friends with my parents. He worked for Vrij Nederland and made journalistic reportages and portraits. He also took photos of our family. Even after we no longer lived next door we kept in touch.

He told me it was a tough profession and that some working days were very dull. You might have to photograph office buildings. He also stressed that you barely earned anything. But that did not bother me. I was already obsessed with photography from a young age. I found it fascinating that you could capture time. By pressing the shutter you could preserve an impressive moment. The neighbour gave me an important tip: as a photographer it is best to trust your intuition. Do not reason, just capture."

"I was already obsessed with photography from a young age and found it fascinating that you could capture time."

The first Agfa Clack

"For me it began with the Agfa Clack I received as a gift on my 7th birthday. That camera had belonged to my father, who was also very enthusiastic about photography.

I took photos of animals. My father printed my photos himself by exposing photographic paper with the negative under a lamp, then placing it in baths of developer, stop bath and fixer.

At some point I also got a part-time job with a photographer. I was talking one day with the night porter of a printing company. He turned out to be a photographer. I said: 'How great, I want to do that too.' He replied: 'Well, I have some work for you.' And so I went with him when he had to photograph models or shoot stills for feature films. I learned a great deal from that."

"In my student days I used the bathroom as a darkroom. If someone needed the toilet, I packed everything up."

The first SLR camera

"Photography never let go of me. Around the age of 12 I started saving for an SLR camera. It was so expensive that I could only buy it around my twentieth birthday."

Sacha was studying at the time, sharing a flat with housemates. She had to improvise: "I used the shared bathroom as a darkroom. I put a plank on the toilet and placed my enlarger on top. On the shower floor stood my trays of developer, stop bath and fixer." Laughing: "And if someone needed the toilet, I packed everything up."

The first Agfa Clack

"For me it began with the Agfa Clack I received as a gift on my 7th birthday. That camera had belonged to my father, who was also very enthusiastic about photography.

I took photos of animals. My father printed my photos himself by exposing photographic paper with the negative under a lamp, then placing it in baths of developer, stop bath and fixer.

At some point I also got a part-time job with a photographer. I was talking one day with the night porter of a printing company. He turned out to be a photographer. I said: 'How great, I want to do that too.' He replied: 'Well, I have some work for you.' And so I went with him when he had to photograph models or shoot stills for feature films. I learned a great deal from that."

"In my student days I used the bathroom as a darkroom. If someone needed the toilet, I packed everything up."

The first SLR camera

"Photography never let go of me. Around the age of 12 I started saving for an SLR camera. It was so expensive that I could only buy it around my twentieth birthday."

Sacha was studying at the time, sharing a flat with housemates. She had to improvise: "I used the shared bathroom as a darkroom. I put a plank on the toilet and placed my enlarger on top. On the shower floor stood my trays of developer, stop bath and fixer." Laughing: "And if someone needed the toilet, I packed everything up."

First assignments

"I earned money with small photography jobs. I photographed for the student newspaper and made portraits of professors. At some point I started taking photos for a casting agency. They initially approached me as a model but I was not interested in that. I said: 'It seems much more interesting to take photos part-time.' And I was not afraid to say that.

I think I owe a lot to the fact that I have a combination of boldness and naivety in me. I often react spontaneously, say it sounds like fun and just get started. The people at that agency said: 'Okay, show us what you've got.' I had a decent portfolio and they responded positively."

"I ruined a large part of a series because I did not set the shutter speed correctly. Well, that happens to you exactly once."

Learning from mistakes

"I learned the most by making mistakes. I once ruined a large part of a series at the modelling agency. I was photographing models and actors for their portfolio but was working with studio flashes I had no experience with, and had not set the shutter speed correctly. You get a black bar in your photo. Almost all those photos were ruined." She laughs: "Well, something like that only happens to you once, after that you do set it correctly.

With analogue photography there is naturally some time before you see the photo. If you photograph intuitively, you press the shutter when you feel you are seeing something special. If you think too long, the moment is gone."

Visual language and conveying the message

"I studied Psychology and Communication Studies and did NOT go to Photography School. That school was in Apeldoorn and that place did not sound very exciting at that age. Everything was happening in Amsterdam. UvA was also known for CREA, where you could take creative courses including photography and darkroom work.

The Photography School was not focused on creativity, but purely on technique. And I already had that mastered. I was not starting from scratch."

Visual language and conveying the message

"I studied Psychology and Communication Studies and did NOT go to Photography School. That school was in Apeldoorn and that place did not sound very exciting at that age. Everything was happening in Amsterdam. UvA was also known for CREA, where you could take creative courses including photography and darkroom work.

The Photography School was not focused on creativity, but purely on technique. And I already had that mastered. I was not starting from scratch."

"The studies of Psychology and Communication Studies are, like photography, focused on conveying the message. When I ended up in journalism at AT5 as editor and cameraman, I found it challenging to make visual stories. I still find it surprising to see how many forms of visual language exist. The possibilities of visual language are endless."

Current analogue photography projects

"I still take analogue photos, but only when creating personal work. With commercial assignments you have to work quickly and efficiently. A film roll is not convenient then.

Analogue photography is a luxury for me. I occupy myself with it when I have no time limit."

The magic of analogue photography

"Analogue photography is craftsmanship. Compare it with slow cooking. You work at a different pace. Calmly, thoroughly and carefully. In a Hasselblad you load a film with only 12 photos. You are bound by that, which is nicely manageable."

Back to basics

"I also find it interesting, when I have my analogue camera with me, to go back to basics. The exposure HAS to be right. I grew up with it; until my 30s I always worked analogically, so for me it is completely normal.

Analogue photography sounds romantic but it is not. It is very hard work. I do not scan anything to edit. If I photograph analogically, I go all the way. I make sure the photo is taken correctly, and that nothing needs to be 'saved' in post-processing.

I sometimes find it amusing to look at the work of young people discovering analogue photography. Some photos are really poor. They rely on the auto mode they have in digital cameras. They do not think about aperture or shutter speed. You do have to realise that the standard is higher with analogue photography. Analogue photography is not an excuse to just do whatever."

"Analogue photography sounds romantic but it is very hard work."

Analogue favourites

"I have several analogue cameras and some hold extra meaning for me. Like that first Agfa Clack — I still have it.

I also have a Leica M4, which first belonged to Eva Besnyo and later to Ata Kando, both Hungarian photographers. Ata documented Hungarian refugees and endangered Indigenous peoples in the Amazon. With her and Diana Blok I made the project The Living Other with more than 70 photographers.

Koos Breukel asked if I would take part in his project PS Camera, in which he challenged photographers to use old analogue cameras belonging to illustrious predecessors. It felt for many as though the spirit of that famous photographer was still in the camera.

I made a photo with Ata's Leica. She gave me the camera because she could no longer photograph. My subject became Ata Kando herself — she was turning 100 that year. I shot two rolls of film of Ata holding a Rolleiflex, just like the one she used to have.

When I got the contact sheet back, I soon realised I was overlooking the best image — the photo in which she almost disappeared behind her Rolleiflex. Ata Kando became the camera herself. Everything was beautiful: the visual rhyme of the lenses, the curls in her dress and hair..."

This photo hung in Museum Kranenburgh. It was Ata's favourite. The photo later hung in Museum Rotterdam and Museum Hilversum and was widely published when Ata passed away. Ata ultimately reached the age of 103.

A photo collector in New York once said something beautiful about ageing photographers: "Fixer is the elixir." It's just a tip!

Removing discomfort during photo shoots

"The communicator in me is always present, even during a photo shoot. I talk the whole time, I explain, I ask questions, I listen. I try to remove any discomfort. In my view a portrait is a collaboration.

I usually shoot my portraits digitally so I can show the subject halfway through the shoot what the portrait looks like. The subject is often pleasantly surprised and immediately poses a lot more confidently.

I make many authors' portraits. Authors live within themselves. They are not used to showing themselves and have little photo experience. That is why I help them feel at ease. There are authors who come back to me because they feel comfortable with me. I find that a very nice compliment."

The essence of black and white

"Almost all my analogue photos are black and white. When you work in black and white, you strip a photo back to its essence. I once made a reportage about children with albinism in Tanzania. There is a photo dear to me of a girl with the evocative name Lightness. She is about 13 and waiting shyly in front of the church.

Everyone around Lightness is dark and you see a small girl looking up at her with undisguised astonishment. In the colour photo that gaze does not stand out as much. But in black and white you see it very clearly. The emotion is palpable. The image speaks for itself."

In 2010 I made the series B.A.C.K./The Other Side of the Moon: classic portraits of around 12 public figures, but photographed from the back with my Hasselblad. The effect is that you can still recognise them! The portrait becomes a kind of landscape. The series has hung in several museums and was shown at Art Amsterdam.