A photograph can be blurred and still bring a day back with surprising clarity. For Hubert, one frame from a daytime DJ set does exactly that: a crowd drawing together, people jumping, and the happiness he felt in the middle of it. The image does not have to be perfectly centred to keep what matters.
His photography grows out of time spent with friends and family. Now living in Wedding, close to Berlin Photo Studio, he carries a small film camera that once belonged to his mother. Its history is part of the reason he keeps using it.
A camera waiting in a bedside drawer
Hubert began using disposable cameras about ten years ago. Digital photography had left him feeling overwhelmed by the sorting afterwards. He also noticed himself repeating the same shots, with the spontaneity of a moment slipping away.
After his grandfather died, he asked his mother whether any of his grandfather’s cameras were still around. They had been lost or given away. But she had kept her own camera in a bedside drawer, untouched for years. Inside was an almost finished roll of expired film, about seventeen years old, holding photographs from their childhood.
That camera, a Canon AF35M II, became Hubert’s everyday companion. Small enough to take along and straightforward to use, it lets him photograph the little moments he shares with people he loves. He says he now barely uses his phone for pictures.
Finding a rhythm in Wedding
He has only recently moved to the neighbourhood. The light on the square already gives him a reason to take the camera out more often. Wedding feels local to him, a setting that fits the photographs he makes of friends and family.
The camera also has its own rhythm. Waiting for the flash to charge can let a moment slip away. Friends have begun to recognise the sound of it switching on. These small interruptions belong to the experience he describes; the camera is present in the room, alongside the people he wants to remember.
“But ultimately, photography is about immortalizing happy moments with the people I love.”
The photograph that brings a dance floor back
Hubert recalls Coco Maria’s daytime set at Waking Life 2026 in Crato, Portugal, on a hot day in June. One of his favourite DJs, she began with ambient sounds and gradually brought house music into the second half of the set. People who had been resting began to gather on the dance floor, moving closer to the music.
His photograph holds the energy of that gathering. It is blurred and imperfectly centred, but looking at it brings him back to the crowd, the DJ playing records and the happiness of being there. The photograph matters because he recognises an experience in it.
Keeping the pictures he once called mistakes
Low light and movement have often left Hubert with blurred frames. At first he thought he had ruined them. Now those pictures are frequently his favourites. He is drawn to the abstraction: a face or gesture becoming less literal while the feeling remains.
That preference is personal. He is describing how his relationship with his own pictures has changed, rather than offering a rule for how anyone else should photograph. A frame he might once have rejected can now be the one he wants to keep.
Leaving room for surprise
Hubert mostly uses film, often Kodak Gold. He enjoys making a picture and then discovering it after development, sometimes weeks or months later. For him, that gap is part of the pleasure. It separates taking the photograph from seeing what it has become.
Next, he would like to experiment with different films, perhaps move beyond a point-and-shoot, and explore double exposures. He is also curious about more physical ways of changing an image. These are directions he wants to investigate, rather than techniques he claims to have mastered.
His advice to someone starting out is to ask a film shop for recommendations and leave room to be spontaneous. In his own photographs, the starting point is already close: people he cares about and moments they share.
A few details about Hubert’s film photography
What camera does Hubert use?
He uses his mother’s Canon AF35M II point-and-shoot and says he often shoots Kodak Gold.
Why does he keep blurred photographs?
He enjoys their abstraction and the memories they carry. Some images he first considered mistakes have become favourites.
What does he photograph?
Friends, family and shared moments are central to his photography. His recent move to Wedding is also giving him new light and surroundings to notice.
Follow Hubert Espeisse on Instagram.
Photography and interview responses: Hubert Espeisse.
Interview and editing: Emiliano Vittoriosi, Berlin Photo Studio.
This feature is part of Developing Stories, our conversations about the people and experiences behind photographs.
