The Hipstography Awards 2017 – Nominees for Documentary Combo of the Year

Which are your favorite 3 combos? You can vote for one of them, or two or three, it’s entirely up to you; the maximum, however, is three.

Only one vote per person is allowed.

Voting for this category will end on Monday January 22.

Combo #509 (Stavros Dimakopoulos)

Lens:  Stavros 

Film:  Manneken 

Flash:  Juicy Orange Gel 

"This series was made during the archaeological excavation I was part of. I wanted to capture the emotions of the people involved: their joy, their fatigue, their anticipation, and their surprise… Stavros Lens, Manneken Film and Juicy Orange Gel Flash resulted in a unique style, which perfectly fits within the spirit of this excavation: in the harsh sunlight the colors appear bright and desaturated in the earthy tones, the contrast is intense, the skin looks sunburnt and grainy. The detail that makes the difference lies in the chosen film, adding a white frame to every single picture, which is - what else? - dusty; just like all of us, who worked in the pits!"
Stavros Dimakopoulos

Combo #550 (Polina Sarri)

Lens:  Madalena (40%) 

Film:  Hackney (88%) 

Flash:  Apollo 

Exposure: +0.1 • Clarity: 20 • Highlights: -25 • Shadows: +20 • Vibrancy: +20 • RGB: modified • Texture: 0

"Madalena is one of the most idiosyncratic lenses of the Hipstamatic collection, which, apart from the fact that it subtracts the light, flattens the hues and eliminates the details, has a really weird character that you either hate or fall in love with. I personally belong to the latter and it has been one of my favourites of all time. Well, it is common ground that taming Madalena lens is hard to do, but it is always a challenge worth taking.
In the following city series of indoor and outdoor photos of both people and places, I paired it with the Hackney film and the Apollo flash, for a touch of subtle nostalgia. The flash gives extra warmth and clarity, the film adds the missing light sparkle and although the new combo might seem balanced, the strong spirit of Madalena is still dominant, as it should be. Because who wants to tame it after all?"
Polina Sarri

Combo #566 (Brett Evan Gross)

Lens:  Eric 

Film:  Sequoia 

Flash:  Apollo 

"There are two things that interest me in this series: one is the dizzying chaos and disorder of Ho Chi Minh City; the other is the aesthetic result of the attempt to create protected, clean, architectural fortresses that rise up out of the mud and detritus of Saigon's fast-developing districts. I'm always searching for beautiful ugliness, a quality that excites the imagination for being more than the sum of its elements. Eric + Sequoia + Apollo turn Saigon's hot colorful mayhem into strange, cold, flat, illustration-like pictures."
Brett Evan Gross

Combo #572 (Marco Gianfranco Spampanato)

Lens:  Stavros 

Film:  Robusta 

Flash:  Apollo 

"Chioggia & Venice"

"The historical center of Chioggia, when viewed from above, appears in the form of a "fishbone". The city is called "Piccola Venezia" because of its urban features, which are very similar to those of her "older sister". In Chioggia - a sort of island connected to the mainland by a few streets - there are squares, fields and canals like in Venice. The city of Venice has been the capital of the Republic of Venice for over a thousand years and is known as "The Serenissima", "The Dominant" and "The Queen of the Adriatic". Because of the peculiarities of the city and its artistic heritage, Venice is universally considered to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and is, along with its lagoon, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This alone has contributed to making it the third Italian city (after Rome and Milan) with the highest tourist flow anywhere in the world."
Marco Gianfranco Spampinato

Combo #574 (Joaquin Montalvan)

Lens:  Yoona 

Film:  Ina's 1969 

Flash:  RedEye Gel 

The Photos... "Whenever I'm working on a film, I take behind-the-scenes photos to capture the "real" memories born out of the "reel" reality. Ray Sutton rides a vintage 1989 Harley-Davidson Motorcycle with a custom paint job. Ray Sutton is the Founder of the Rebel Drifters MC. As I was filming him, I also photographed the in-between moments; moments when the cameras were not rolling, moments before action, and after cut. After driving approximately 2 and 1/2 hours, we exited off of Route 40 at the small town of Ludlow, having lunch at the Ludlow Cafe. I had a bowl of chili, and a Coke Float. From there, we drove another 30 minutes to the even smaller town of Amboy, population 21. This was our destination. Our purpose was to shoot Ray arriving at Roy's gas station, and cooling off from the long ride he had been making for the film. Transportation Captain, Andris Freimanis, then drove a Jeep Cherokee at a steady pace of 15mph so I could get footage of Ray riding down the road with the beautiful Mojave Desert in the background. Thus, after 6 hours of driving, and about 3 hours of shooting, we probably completed a little more than a minute's length additionally on the film."

The Combo... "I was scrolling through the news feed on Facebook when a picture of Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter appeared. It grabbed my attention. The color of the image instantly evoked a kind of nostalgia in me. It was desaturated, and faded, yet it had a warm softness to it. It took me back to my childhood, to photos my family had taken of themselves back in the day. I wanted to duplicate that look in Hipstamatic. So, I went into the editing feature of Hipstamatic and, using their stock photo of a lighthouse, tried every lens, film, and flash combo possible until I landed on Yoona/Ina's 1969/Red Eye Gel as being the closest approximation to the photo. Needless to say, it is my favorite lens/film/flash combo as of right now, at least until the next time an image grabs my attention, demanding to be replicated."
Joaquin Montalvan

Combo #577 (Kathleen Magner Rios)

Lens:  Lincoln 

Film:  Bream 

Flash:  Juicy Orange Gel 

"Autumn in Paris"

"When making my yearly pilgrimage to Paris Photo, I tend to spend a couple of days at the exposition, getting inspired, then head into my favorite city to shoot, hoping that the inspiration finds its way into my photos. This year, I embarked on my journey with inspiration in hand, thanks to Mike Ryan, who introduced me to the Bream bug. While in Paris I hoped I would be able to reproduce the glitch that turns Bream’s frame from white to black (see Hipstography’s article for details on how to reproduce the effect.) It took several concentrated editing sessions (and a few glasses of local wine) to apply the effects to the shots I had taken during each day.
The heavy black border is elegant, chic and sexy. The Lincoln lens and Juicy Orange Gel flash add a gritty warmth to the Bream film. The resulting portfolio feels to me like an autumn day in Paris, where the leaves glow warm against the cold gray clouds, the air heady with the smell of roasting chestnuts. For me, it is the epitome of Paris."
Kathleen Magner Rios

This post is also available in: French

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