The first two or three days after developing a roll are often the hardest for Adrian. He looks at the photographs and feels disappointed. Then he returns to them. As the distance from his expectations grows, some of those same frames become favourites.
That rhythm is now part of his selection process. Working under the name Adrian / aka_papu, he is drawn to architecture, symmetry and the ways a city can be organised inside a frame. But recognising a photograph’s value takes a different kind of attention: enough patience to look again.
From a first digital camera to a Minolta SR-T 100
Adrian bought his first digital camera around 2008. At the time, the cost of lenses limited what he felt able to explore. A change came when his girlfriend brought home a Zenit E marked “Moskva-80”. Working out how to use it together, and seeing the photographs she made, encouraged him to buy a film camera of his own: a Minolta SR-T 100.
The equipment felt accessible to him, and he enjoyed the process. He says he has photographed exclusively on film since 2011. What began with a particular camera has become an ongoing creative challenge, with each frame giving him another opportunity to bring feeling and form together.
The engineer’s eye
Adrian is a design engineer with a strong interest in architecture. Staircases, wide views, abandoned places and symmetrical arrangements keep drawing him back. He describes his attraction to symmetry with a little humour: it is probably a professional hazard.
“I love finding order in urban chaos.”
In the photographs he selected for this conversation, that interest is visible in the repeating columns of an underground passage and the long perspective of an industrial hall. The frame lets him bring a complicated space into a clear relationship of lines and shapes. Elsewhere, people appear as small silhouettes inside a tunnel, and the surrounding structure becomes part of the experience of looking at them.
His work also received recognition from the Lomography community: aka_papu was among the 2021 TEN AND ONE winners in Game Changers, and among the winners of Abstract Bodies, a qualifying competition for the Monochrome category.
Giving a new roll time
His first reaction to a developed roll is not the final judgement. Adrian describes needing a few days to become familiar with what is actually in the photographs, rather than what he had hoped to find there.
Over time, his selection criteria have changed. Immediate technical perfection matters less to him than a lasting emotional atmosphere. A frame can grow on him after the disappointment has passed. Looking again becomes part of making the work, even though the exposure itself is already finished.
He also resists choosing a single photograph to stand for everything. Each picture carries its own moment and personal meaning. He sees the archive as a larger puzzle and wants viewers to discover their own points of connection.
Two cameras, more than one possibility
When travelling, Adrian carries two cameras. One might hold black-and-white film and the other colour; alternatively, he might choose different film speeds for the conditions he expects. This is his way of keeping options available while working within the limits of a roll.
For him, film encourages a slower pace and greater awareness of each frame. He enjoys trying different stocks, including expired film. These choices are part of his own working method, shaped by curiosity about what a photograph might become.
Leaving room for an unexpected result
Adrian’s interest in order does not mean he wants every result to be predictable. He describes accidental double exposures, light leaks and colour shifts from poorly stored film as experiences that have sometimes given him images he preferred to his original plan.
He values those outcomes as part of his visual language. That does not make every damaged or unpredictable frame successful; it describes his willingness to consider what an unexpected image offers before dismissing it.
A photograph can take time to become yours
His advice to someone beginning is to avoid making expensive equipment a condition for starting, and to leave room for mistakes. The most useful lesson in his own process may be even simpler: do not let the first viewing decide everything.
For your next selection, you could try keeping an initial shortlist and returning to the same roll a few days later. Which photographs still hold your attention? Which ones begin to offer something you had not noticed? This is an invitation drawn from Adrian’s experience, not a fixed timetable for everyone.
Questions about Adrian’s film photography
What subjects does Adrian / aka_papu photograph?
His recurring interests include architecture, street scenes, staircases, abandoned spaces and symmetry. His background in design engineering informs his attention to geometry.
Why does he revisit a newly developed roll?
He often feels disappointed at first. Returning after a few days helps him separate the photographs from his expectations and notice images with a lasting atmosphere.
Which camera started his film photography?
After trying his girlfriend’s Zenit E, he bought a Minolta SR-T 100. He says he has worked exclusively on film since 2011.
Explore Adrian’s photographs on Lomography as aka_papu and Instagram.
For another way of seeing the built environment, read Ethan Allen on geometry, skateboarding and memory. If you are beginning with film, our guide to developing and scanning your first roll explains the next practical steps.
Based on Adrian’s written interview for Developing Stories. Interview and editing: Emiliano Vittoriosi / Berlin Photo Studio. Photographs: Adrian / aka_papu.
