Who needs to know you can develop the camera film using blood? Not me! I’m extremely squeamish. I only just managed to get through the recent critically acclaimed horror, Nosferatu, because it has the best cinematography I’ve seen in a long time. And when a friend once suggested I watch Midsommar, I felt weird for days. Grisly modern horror just ain’t my bag. And it’s because of all the blood!
So, a huge thank you to Vancouver-based fashion photographer, YouTuber, and Instagrammer @yhanson_photography – seriously check out her work, it’s fab – for uploading a Reel and a YouTube video describing how you can develop film using blood. And an equally big thank you to Digital Camera World Editor in Chief, James Artaius, for gifting me this darn article to write.
Very funny, James…
Not only does Yvonne explain why blood is a suitable developing agent, but she’s only gone and done it herself! That’s right, she’s created a series of film photographs developed with blood.
The idea originates from a publication called The Film Developing Cookbook (1998). According to Yvonne, it touches on the subject that anything organic can be used to develop film. So, together with fellow YouTuber, Learn Film Photography, an experiment was devised to test this theory alongside various substances including… blood.
The red stuff in question was pig’s blood and the whole thing was treated like a rather scientific experiment. Over 200 frames of Ilford HP5 Plus were used over 2 identical setups, with photographs captured at 5 different exposures from -2 to +2 stops. This enabled the photographers to better compare each substance, including pond water, moss, and even urine (double yuck!).
I’ll let you watch the whole video to witness the development stage. But suffice to say, it does work. And yet, I still think I’ll be sending my film off to the developers.
This reminds me of the time I learned that the abstract photograph on Metallica’s Load album is a mixture of blood and another bodily fluid that’s, well, a little too much for a photography website.
On that note… bye!
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