Bryan is a film photographer with a soft spot for cars and nostalgia. Enjoying and embracing the imperfections and slower pace of film, what started with family vacation snapshots has turned into a passion for capturing these artworks on wheels. — timeless, beautiful, and a little bit sentimental.
Age (or age range): 38
Where you live and/or where are you from?
I grew up in North East Iowa but I currently reside in the San Francisco Bay Area
What is your earliest memory with a camera?
My earliest memory with a camera is probably from a vacation with my family in Nova Scotia when I was in Junior High. My dad always had a camera with him on vacation to document our trips. He was really big into Light Houses, and on this particular trip I remember him letting me use his camera to take pictures at one of our stops along the way. I fell in love with the process of capturing photographs of travel moments. It wouldn’t be till much later though that I started to take photography more seriously.
What drew you to photographing cars?
From a very young age, I’ve always found cars to be simply beautiful. In elementary school, they would have those book fairs where your parents would send you with a few bucks to buy some books. Well, I never found the books very interesting. What did catch my eye were the car posters. I had a Lotus Elise and Dodge Viper poster hanging in my room for a majority of my youth. To this day, when I see the rare occurrence of a Dodge Viper driving by I still get giddy.
Did you learn photography through formal education or on your own?
If you studied it academically, was it worth it and what was the most valuable thing you took away from it? If you’re self-taught, what has been your biggest challenge in the process? I learned a lot about photography, cameras, and lenses from watching YouTube videos. In the beginning, I would sit for hours taking notes on lenses and how the different focal lengths and apertures would affect the look image. At first all of the numbers and letters seemed overwhelming… 200mm, iso 64, 24 MPG, 1/1000, A, M, S, P… but they all sucked me in and I became obsessed with knowing more. At that time my iPhone was my main photographing tool. Until I upgraded to a Nikon d5300 and really started putting in the work. A lot of my learning process was trial and error. Trial by fire really. Failing to expose photos properly in Manual mode was my biggest hurdle in the very beginning. There were definitely moments where I thought I would never get the hang of it, but if you keep trying and working at it, it all falls into place.
Is there a particular shoot or collaboration that you would like to make?
I don’t know if anything like this exists…but I would love to get connected with Chevrolet and be a “brand ambassador” focused on documenting and telling stories about Corvettes through the generations. Corvettes have a special place in my heart and I would love to have more opportunities to document and capture images of them, telling their stories on film. If I could create a dream collaboration, project, or job; that would be it.
What do cars represent to you beyond the machine itself?
A vision. A dream. A memory. They are like beautiful time machines. Taking you back to the era from which they were born. When I see C5 Corvette, I’m immediately teleported back to 13-year-old Bryan in his uncles’ garage. Ready to take his first joy ride around the suburbs of Chicago. For some people, cars can simply be a means of getting from A to, but for me, they are memories. They are art.
What’s your go-to film camera for shooting and what would be your dream film camera to shoot with?
Right now, I really love shooting with my Pentax 645. Its big. It’s bulky. Kind of clunky to use sometimes. But I love it. I always enjoy the process of taking images with it, and when I go out shooting without it, I always wish I had brought it with me. Someday I would love to own a Mamiya 7. I would also enjoy having a Leica M7. I mostly shoot SLR’s, but I’ve come to love rangefinders, and I’m an A-Mode junky. Especially when I’m on walks with my kids, which is when I take a lot of my images. Sometimes I just like to set my aperture, focus on the composition, and let the camera do the rest so I can enjoy the moment more.
What challenges have you faced shooting on film?
For me, it was probably not a good idea to start by shooting expired film. I inherited a bunch of cameras and expired film from my brother-in-law’s father/grandfather. I started shooting on expired film and the results were such a mixed bag that I didn’t dig the vibe of film… or at least the results the expired film was giving me. Once I started shooting fresh film that all changed and I fell in love. I still occasionally shoot the expired roll of film if the mood strikes.
How has your approach to photography evolved since you first started shooting film?
Film allowed me to fall back in love with photography. I got so deep into digital photography and making sure every single image was perfect down to the last mark of dirt on the image sensor. Everything was getting so high tech and the joy was simply being lost for me. Film allowed me to slow down and really appreciate the images I was capturing.
How do you stay inspired when creativity feels low or stagnant?
For me it’s just one of those things you have to push through. I think it’s ok to be uninspired for a season. Work through it or maybe take a break. Allow yourself to relax and embrace the lull.
Which car have you been waiting to shoot and have yet to encounter?
Oh man, this is tough. I guess at the moment I don’t have one. I’ve captured every generation of Corvette which was a goal of mine for the last Zine I put out.
Have you ever completely messed up a roll?
What happened and what did you learn from it? My 2nd roll of B&W film I forgot to change the ISO and shot the roll two (2) stops over exposed. That was before I realized that over exposure wasn’t necessary a bad thing. The only other issue I’ve really had is my door latch broke on the very last frame of a roll of black and white. About the last 6-10 images were either partially affected or just completely unusable. It was a bummer, but the “light leaks” had a pretty cool look on a few frames.
What’s the boldest experiment you’ve done with your gear or style?
I guess I don’t go to bold most of the time. Probably the boldest thing I’ve really done is experiment with double exposures.
If you could shoot only one film stock for the rest of your life, which one would it be?
For 35mm I’d have to pick Kodak Ektar 100, and for 120 I would pick Portra 400. I love the looks of those films in each stock respectively.
What do you hope to transmit with your photographs?
I hope that when people see my work they think to themselves, “Wow, that’s a pretty rad car!”. If I can make people say that, then I’ll be pretty happy with my work.
Is there anything that you'd like to promote? I.e. Your business website and what you do, other social channels, or projects you wanna promote?
Last year I released a Zine called Little Red* Corvette where I went around the San Francisco Bay Area capturing all generations of Corvettes in as many colors as possible. I’m currently working on Issue No. 2 which focuses on capturing Corvettes on various film stocks. I hope to have it completed by Spring 2026. The first issue can be found here: https://mixam.com/print-on-demand/66b0fa816f1bbc067ba26e25
