The Photo Dept. Lab Opens Its Doors To The Milwaukee Film Community!
Chris Sturm on YouTube, the film look and how his GF is smarter and hotter than him.
Housekeeping
The last two weeks have been rough in the Lumen household. A merry go round of sickness has us all in pyjamas and feeling pretty sorry for ourselves. By the time you, dear reader, see these words I am hoping we are all back to full health and in the swing of life again.
Speaking of life, today’s guest Chris Sturm of the Photo Dept. YouTube channel has embarked on a big life changing venture, following his dreams and passions. You can read more about that below in our interview…but first I want to tell you about a fun zine that I was a contributor to.
Back in ISSUE 09 I shared a zine one of my oldest friends had made that was made up of photos of me when I was about 18 or 19 I think. This photographer, Jessie Dinan, has a new zine out called “Girls To The Front” and I was asked to write a piece about my connection to music and the girls to the front sentiment. 50% of the profits go to charities like beyond blue and it’s an awesome exploration of women being seen and being themselves. Grab yourself a copy via the button below.
That is it for now from me guys. Let’s get straight into this week's interview with Chris. Enjoy!
Hey Chris, thanks for joining us today! Can you tell the readers who you are, where you are and what you do please?
Hey Lucy! Thanks for having me. I’m a professional photographer/youtuber/film lab owner originally from California but currently in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Some may know me from my YouTube channel The Photo Dept (like and subscribe)
Let’s talk about this photo lab you have just started up! Talk us through the lead up to this decision and why developing film was the path you chose?
Absolutely! Well, last November I was fired from my studio photography gig at the Kohl’s photo studio because the studio manager didn’t like me. That’s a long story for another time. So I’m unemployed and depressed and my amazing girlfriend Jackie suggested one day “Why don’t you just open a film lab? You’re processing film all the time anyway”.
All of my best ideas come from her I swear. It made a lot of sense because I went to school for photography, I had been processing all of my own film since I was 14-15, and it truly is something I love to do. I just needed to transition out of our kitchen and into a real space. The lab is called The Photo Dept Lab, sharing the name with my Youtube channel. It just kind of made sense considering the visibility of my channel and peoples familiarity with what I do already.
I am so fascinated by people who have an idea or a dream, especially in the creative field, and then make it a reality. I’m wondering what your reservations were, if any, and have you encountered any barriers or challenges yet?
Oh I had tons of reservations. What if I messed someones film up? What if people didn’t take me seriously? What if I don’t build enough of a client base to keep going? What if I fail entirely? Nothing in life that is worth anything is free or easy. You really have to take risks and put yourself out there in order to create something worth the work it took to create it.
The great thing is, I have a vast background of experience with film processing so the technical challenges are always easily surmountable no matter what. The real challenges are with people. People are picky and finicky and particular, and what might be the perfect scans to one client might be absolute garbage to the next. Learning how to balance technical proficiency with my own preferences for how I like to do things is key.
In the end, I think the way I have approached this has allowed me a wide margin of objective success with a big range of clients. To be fair, my clients are the absolute best in the world and I am very lucky.
What do you hope The Photo Dept. Lab will become as it grows? Any future plans or dreams you can let us in on?
My main goal with the lab is for it to become a creative hub for the film community here. Before I moved to Milwaukee, I didn’t really know how the community was.
I knew from experience that California has a huge film enthusiast community. When I finally met photographers and creatives here in the Midwest, I realized how vast and diverse the community is here. It’s pretty wild. Even specifically in the Milwaukee area, there are tons of film photographers.
The one thing that bugged me about the community here was a perceived lack of physical spaces for creatives and specifically photographers to occupy and leverage and feel safe in. From the get go, I wanted the lab to be much more than a lab, I wanted it to be a meeting place, a hangout spot, a place to learn and create, and a place to feel included.
I was so happy when I found the retail space that I moved into last month because it is really perfect for that. Plenty of space for the lab element with lots left over for people to physically gather.
I’m going to host meetups and events, workshops, educational events, and whatever else people can think of. I really want to community to feel a sense of ownership over the lab.
You and I both feed the beast that is YouTube - how do you feel about the platform right now and how will your channel and the lab interact with each other?
Youtube is a consistent source of anxiety for me. I’m really happy to see how far you’ve come in such a short time!
Your hard work has seemingly paid off in a big way and its so cool to see.
My problem is that I’m pretty inconsistent with my output so my videos don’t get served to a big enough audience. I’ve sorta stalled around 12k ish subscribers, which is fine! I’ve always kinda felt a little left out of the YouTube community. All of the big YouTubers are all friends and I kinda hang out in the fringe by myself, so that discourages me a bit and then I don’t make videos and its a cycle.
But I do want to ramp up my video stuff once the lab is chugging along and I don’t have to worry about all of the stuff that comes with getting started. The space is gorgeous so it will make for really nice backdrop for videos, a well as afford me a lot more space than I’ve had for video production in the past.
I’m cautiously excited about where the channel will be going in the near future.
I would love to know what your thoughts are on the term “the film look”? It’s a well covered topic but it seems to be one that is so polarizing and also misunderstood at times. Hit us with your thoughts Chris!?!
Oh man, yeah the film look. Well, I feel like in the mid 2000’s and 2010’s, peoples perception of “the film look” was really tied into what VSCO was doing and that warped peoples perceptions of what film is supposed to look like.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, its just a thing. The problem people had with that perception was that new and beginner photographers started think that faded, crushed shadows and grain was what made film look the way it does. Its taken a while but I think people have finally come around to realize that those characteristics meant that film was underexposed.
I think it was really tied to nostalgia for film, and having a heavily stylized “look” was attractive because it screamed “THIS IS FILM” instead of just looking like a well made photograph. The subject of the photograph became less important in contrast to the stylized look that was applied over it.
Nowadays, I feel people have a better understanding of why film is so good, what characteristics make it desirable, and how to achieve that in a way that doesn’t come off as contrived. We’ve almost gone completely the opposite way, with lots of detail in the shadows and light, airy highlights becoming more of the norm.
Like Lux and I, you and your girlfriend Jackie both shoot film and seem to cross over on a lot of interests. Let’s just take a minute to shout her out here - but also answer the question, will she be working in the lab ever??
I wish I could take credit for Jackie’s interest in film but she was already into it before we met.
She has had a Pentax K1000 for ever, and also has a very cool Ricoh GR digital camera. I did, however, get her into medium and large format. Her camera collection has been steadily growing.
She’s got a really great natural eye for composition and she always surprises me with what she comes up with. I would love to have her work with me at the lab, but she just started working as a nurse at the end of last year, and someone has to make actual money in this relationship (kidding but not).
Credit where credit is due, she has been absolutely instrumental in getting the lab ready, and the lab wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for her.
Behind every great man is a much smarter and attractive woman and that is absolutely the case here.
Lastly, can you tell people how they can get their film rolls to you and if you have any special deals or cool things coming up in the Photo Dept World? How can we keep up to date with everything Chris?
The website for the lab is thephotodeptlab.com and there is a bunch of info on how you can mail in or drop your film off to be processed and scanned. I will be updating the site with more info on events and special projects in the near future, and there is a blog on the site where I will be posting all sorts of stuff.
You can also follow along on instagram @thephotodeptlab where I will be sharing work from our clients and updates about events.
By the time this goes live, we will have had our grand opening Sunday May 7, which should be really fun. I’ll be serving pour over coffee all day and giving away film and stuff for anyone who stops by. I’m hoping for a big community turnout! If you wanna send us some film you can use code YOURECOOL for 15% off your whole order.
Thanks for reading guys. Leave a comment if you will be checking out the lab or sending in a roll or two for Chris to develop!
Great interview and Wow! Chris great effort to pick yourself up and forge your own path. We all experience challengers in our lives and your GF motivated :) response to yours is mega! Here's to success!