About
I'm Page Sands, a film photographer based on James Island in Charleston, South Carolina. I shoot 35mm and medium format film across the Lowcountry and wherever I travel.
I got into photography by accident. In high school, my advisor would not let me add a sixth class because of my grades. Friends left the darkroom open for me. Nobody taught me anything. I loaded film, mixed chemistry, and figured it out by wasting a lot of paper.
I spent two decades in technology and never left. MSc from the University of London, 15 years in enterprise software, now running SandsDX where I work with B2B SaaS companies to drive their go-to-market growth. Film photography is the counterweight. Twelve frames on a roll of 120 means every composition requires deliberate action. That changes how you shoot.
Charleston is home and the primary subject. The light here is worth the humidity.
Equipment
Pentax 6x7
6x7cm negatives on 120 film. Paired with the 105mm f/2.4 and 55mm f/4. The camera behind most of the work on this site.
Leica MP
Mechanical rangefinder for street and travel. Paired with a Voigtländer 35mm f/1.4. No batteries, no electronics, no excuses.
Leica SL2-S
When the situation demands digital. The closest experience to shooting film while maintaining the Leica system of deliberate, considered photography.
Specializations
- Lowcountry landscapes and seascapes
- Urban street photography
- Medium format portraiture
- Black and white darkroom development
Process
Black and white film gets developed at home. I process in Kodak D-76 for standard work and HC-110 when I want to move faster. Loading 120 film onto reels in total darkness is still the part of photography that feels most like craft. You work by touch, trusting your hands to do what your eyes cannot.
Color negative film goes to a lab for C-41 processing. I scan everything myself on an Epson V850. Scanning is where interpretation happens. The same negative rendered on a Noritsu, a Frontier, and a flatbed will produce three different images. I approach each frame as a separate creative decision, adjusting density and color balance to match what I saw when I pressed the shutter.