About Rowan
I am a Machine Learning Researcher based in NYC.
Whilst I previously did professional portrait photography on a freelance basis; I now focus solely on shooting analogue film, and no longer take on paid projects.
My Work; I primarily shoot a mixture of street and lifestyle that naturally emerges from me bringing my camera with me everywhere. I now prefer to edit minimally, favoring a reduced palette of light, bright colors and glowy rendering.
Why Film; I’m drawn to film’s slow highlight roll off and the way it carries color, glow, and halation without needing to extensively tune every image to achieve the desired look from a clinical prior. Whilst I also enjoy the manual process of shooting film my opinion is subject to change as computational photography improves, but I can also see the value of a negative as a fixed, physical truth increasing in turn.
Gear; Most work on this website was likely shot on a Leica M4 with a 35mm F/2 Ultron, LLL 35mm F/1.4 AA and occasionally 90mm F/2 Summicron. I shoot a mixture of film stocks but most frequently Kodak Gold 200, Portra 400/800.