We catch up with photographer Samantha Johnston in a London studio, photographing hundreds of antique objects. Covid didn’t really disrupt her practice: she’s still constantly staging, shooting, processing and printing.

Q
Is that also where you get your inspiration from?
A
Growing up in Belfast I was, and still am, mostly inspired by books. Gothic novels, short stories, poems; they constantly inspire me to create. Sci-fi, Samuel Becket and Simone de Beauvoir. Lots of noir books, old school crime. I don’t watch tv, but I’m a huge movielover. Alfred Hitchock, Wim Wenders, French movies, Italian crime films. Anything from the 1940’s to the 1970’s. I’m drawn to everything from the past. I have a longing for the origins, that’s one of the reasons I want film processing to exist for generations to come.

Q
That was actually one of the first things we learned about you. You’re not just doing all the art direction and lighting. But you also develop and print the images yourself.
A
I know, it’s kind of an obsession. The way you process film really determines the outcome of the image. I do the temperature and the mixing of the chemicals myself. I already know the color that I want the photo to be, so when I’m printing I’m putting specific colors in my work. It’s the same with black and white printing. Not everyone will see it, but little nuances can really determine the authenticity of an image. It is also these moments in the darkroom that I really love, there is something very comforting about walking into a darkroom and seeing your enlarger and smelling the chemicals.