A Conversation With: Attila Szekely / by Jack Gobbe

Attila is a brilliant film photographer and writer. It is through his creative endeavours that Attila shares his view of the world around him. We caught up with Attila to discuss his creative influences and his love for analogue photography.

Hi Attila, introduce yourself. How old are you and where are you based?

 Hello Jack! I am a male of 17 years. I am based on the Sunshine Coast but I often try escape into other worlds as much as I can.

Your photography does an excellent job at conveying the beauty of your part of the world. What started your passion for photography?

 I don’t remember a single moment when I was like fuck I hear the calling and I need to take photos or whatever, I’m not even like that now. I guess I had been messing around with my mother’s kit a bit when I was little and then the interest stuck with me through my childhood. I remember looking through this book by a man named Taylor Bonin, he’s the bloke who follows around the growlers and captures their shit, anyway looking through this book I was like holy fuck it must be awesome to have these photos as memories when I’m all old and broken. Plus, they were really cool photos, I think that happened 4 years ago when I started listening to the band.

What’s the reasoning behind your almost exclusive use of film?

 I got sick of how everyone could use a digital camera without much understanding, I wanted to make something that required thought and had technical limitations that pushed me to try shit. I’m not saying I’m a scholar in this field, I’m an amateur at best but really weak attempts at shit piss me off. So using film forces to understand the relationship between shutter, aperture and ISO, otherwise you will waste 36 photos and a fuck tonne of money. So that was the catalyst of it all but I quickly grew in love with it after experimenting with different cameras and types of film. I love the tangibility of it, instead of a sensor interpreting what you’re seeing, its like the film traps the light and its almost like you’ve got a bit of the vibe locked away in your prints and negatives. I find that super cool.

 What do you typically shoot with... 

Read the remainder of the interview in Extraordinaire Vol. One