Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director, Nicolas Blanchadell, explains his personal mood board and Slow Photography of Safelight Paper
The Safelight stars aligned in the creation of Safelight Paper
Convenience meets ingenuity, that’s how Safelight Paper was founded by Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director Nicolas Blanchadell. As a veteran employee of Safelight Berlin – a photography lab – and a photographer himself, Nicolas began Safelight Paper with a mood board and community. «It’s my literal baby that just happened to be 9 months in the works», explains Nicolas.
Safelight Paper is a platform for Slow Photography, which refers to photography that implies a human process to it, such as painting, print, movement, and so on. The idea for the magazine began as an idea to primarily focus on the story behind the images, not just admiring the beauty of the image itself. Bearing that idea in mind, Nicolas set forth to the birth of Safelight Paper that’s present in a physical form of a magazine, and online platform where artists can present their work.
Throughout his time working at Safelight Berlin, Nicolas Blanchadell discovered a community that has a passion for cameras, photography. «It’s a technical community, we do photo walks, shoots, talks about cameras and lenses», explains Nicolas. However, he felt something that was absent, «I was missing talks about art and photography in general». For any creative, speaking exclusively about equipment can get rather tiring. It was from this frustration that Nicolas began researching; scouring through social media and various photography mediums.
The ‘Slowing It Down’ mantra
«It’s what I call now fast photography», claims Mr. Blanchadell, but he explains that it’s comes from reflecting upon life, whether it be our lives, his own, in general, where everything is moving fast. From fast fashion, fast sharing thanks to social media, where we take a picture and its live a few hours later, there is rarely a story or meaning tied to it. «It’s just to do something aesthetic, post it, get some likes and move on», related Mr. Blanchadell. Combining everything, the concept of slowing things down is what roused him to create the magazine, to be able to talk about photography again as an art, telling stories and create meaning along with specific memories.
Baby on the way: the Safelight Paper magazine
A man on a mission, Nicolas was clear with what he wanted, armed with a moodboard, in the pursuit to launch a magazine featuring slow photography, something that was missing from the market. «It was the first issue, it’s not easy to start a magazine. I reached out to photographers but since I didn’t have anything to show them except for a moodboard, I had a lot of unanswered emails», explains Nicolas about how he went about giving birth to the first edition. «The funny thing was, like a baby, Safelight Paper took around 9 months from when I had my first moodboard to when it was published. So I guess you could say it truly is my baby», Nicolas gleamed.
Now with the first edition published, the biannual magazine will continue to be a reflection of Nicolas’s taste and vision. Within the magazine, readers can find the works from various photographers, a few who are close friends with the Editor-in-Chief, «We worked together for years and are very close, so I’m really happy to have them».
Shying away from giving specific names, Nicolas teased that there are a few works within the magazine that he doubtlessly admires and invites the public to see for themselves. The community of eleven photographers featured in the first edition hail from mostly around Europe, there are a few French, Italian and Ukrainian photographers, along with from the United Kingdom and New York. Each photographer is given a similar set amount of pages, around 14-16 pages each, but Nicolas is evaluating adding more for the next editions and being more flexible if there’s a bigger story to be told.
Is Slow Photography really a thing?
Nicolas with a smile on his face said «I don’t know if it’s a real thing or if it’s just me describing it like this», when referring to what exactly is Slow Photography, which is the central theme of his magazine, Safelight Paper. He tied it in with his own types of photography. The so-called Slow Photography, which stands for process that involves much time. It isn’t just straight out of the camera and then it’s done. The idea of Slow Photography is centered around what is happening before the picture is even taken, what is the main idea and the reason.
«This is where you think what is the meaning of the picture, why is it being taken, why am I using this angle, why am I picking this model, background, etc.» explained Mr. Blanchadell. He goes on to explain that, of course, you take the picture, but that there is a process after that involves building a series, creating a story with a strong meaning, whether it be something solid and politically related or just a nice story someone wants to tell. It’s all done to say something about the picture and not just referring to the aesthetic.
«I feel like just the fact to slow down that process and to not rush into posting, it’s going to automatically make you think more and have more thoughts, it gives meaning», rounding out Nicolas’s end result of Slow Photography.
The magazine, a personal moodboard gone public
«The magazine was a personal choice, basically it’s my moodboard», describes Nicolas. It is a direct reflection of his choices, ideals and aesthetics. Mr. Blanchadell’s goal with the magazine was to make it primarily something that he likes, and in turn encouraging people, «I want to make the magazine inspire people». Going further into detail, Nicolas explained that his magazine stands out because he’s been able to merge fashion, food, documentary, and portrait photography, all together that is currently unavailable elsewhere.
Everything was done in the name of trying new things, getting out of one’s comfort zone. «Maybe someone doing portraits – photography – is going to see some food photography and think that could be fun. We can mix both to do something truly unique», says Nicolas. He’s going in every direction, when it comes to photography, painting, whatever the creative outlet may be, finding inspiration in books and poems. His goal is to stimulate people to find their own way and make their own stories.
Safelight as a platform for the recruitment of artists
Currently, Nicolas is in the process of making Safelight Paper a larger platform. When it comes to how the photographers and photos make it in the magazine, it’s 50/50, part submission based and part Nicolas who scouts actively. He may find a photographer just by shooting for fashion editorials or portrait series, and build a relationship for Safelight Paper. Within his curation process, Nicolas is heavily focused on finding artists and series that fits the specific topic he wants to focus on. For Safelight Paper and the Instagram page, everything is hand-picked by Nicolas himself. It is a reflection of his creativity.
There are two parts to Safelight Paper, the physical magazine and the digital page and Instagram feed. With the online presence, Safelight Paper received submissions from people and artists but Nicolas is looking for a story. He claims to be picky and isn’t looking at the aesthetic. Texts, written or visual poetry, the meaning of the story is what entices and guides him. If there’s no story, no meaning, Nicolas loses interest. The picture or series must have a meaning, «I want it to be the guideline of the whole magazine», says Nicolas.
Whiting his magazine, Nicolas is heartily trying to reach primarily younger artists and beginners, especially in photography, who are still navigating their way in the tough industry. With all of his heart and soul poured into Safelight Paper, Nicolas is really urging his audience to be inspired to create new things, dare to take a new direction, try a new style, get out of their norms and the familiar to truly give life to something never seen before.
Safelight as an ongoing «no short time» project
Part of thanks to Nicolas’s close relationship with Safelight the shop and studio, he had the owners support throughout the entire project. Arguably, it’s no small feat to begin a magazine and the owners of Safelight were trusting Nicolas fully to do whatever he wanted. However, as the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. It became rather overwhelming and stressful at times.
«Picking the photographers and the stories, I was comfortable with because I know I can handle it», Nicolas continued, «but the whole technical part of making the magazine, the design, layout and everything, was a bit more complicated but an interesting experience because I learned a lot». This is indeed no short term project, Nicolas thought long and hard about the main guidelines of the magazine that’ll take it further into the future, he worked tirelessly to find an approach that would work for the next ten, or twenty issues.
The green future of the magazine, an orientation towards sustainability
Safelight Paper is looking to grow into something more than just a magazine, with the website that was launched recently. Its future looks bright. The future holds more artists, new types of photographers, and maybe even editorials or written subjects. Nicolas cares deeply about not just Safelight Paper’s future, but also sustainability. The magazine is currently, and will always be, printed in the magazine’s hometown of Berlin, using recycled paper.
«I’m trying to own the fashion stories to only have ethical brands of small designers, I don’t want high or fast fashion because it’s going against my message», Nicolas wants to keep the theme of messages and tell strong stories in every issue. In the current edition, the Editor-in-Chief highlighted a story regarding a military camp in Poland, and another about Berlin and wartime stories. These stories serve so that readers can take a position and think about various topics from other perspectives.
Safelight Paper
Safelight Paper was created by Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director Nicolas Blanchadell and is based in Berlin, Germany. The magazine features meaningful works of Slow Photography and is a printed magazine and online platform.
