What did we photographers do before digital cameras? Well, if you’re like me, you shot E6 slide film, bracketed all your shots, and waited for the slides to come back from the laboratory. Then, lupe in hand, perched over a light table, you poured over your rolls of freshly developed film, seeing your work for the first time.

When I was at art school, one of my favourite things to do was to mount my 35mm E6 film myself. This either shows a lack of a social life, or just the desire to control every aspect of my work, but mounting the work was like a cathartic ritual. White gloves, dust blower, scissors, lupe.

Then a friend of mine, who was studying graphic design, introduced me to E6 montages. What? Basically, taking your scraps of E6, glass mounts, and anything else you could get your hands on: feathers, Letraset (and boy do I love Letraset, but that’s another blog), cigarette cellophane. You then started manipulating the E6 film by scratching it and adding layers of Letraset (which if frozen and thawed produced a lovely cracked appearance). Once “finished”, you could then print these onto photographic paper by first creating a paper negative, then using that negative to print from.

Below are some samples of E6 montages.

E6 montage of film, & Letraset	E6 montage of film, feathers and Letraset
E6 montage of film and Letraset	E6 montage w/ cellophane, Letraset & feathers

Visit Angela Coulombe Photography to view a portfolio of my photographic work.

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