An Australian photographer has turned a space exploration-themed photography project – featuring his young daughter during the coronavirus lockdowns – into a book project which has launched on Kickstarter.
Andrew Rovenko started taking pictures of his daughter in and around her home in Melbourne in Australia during the city’s lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.
The project became known as the ‘The Rocketgirl Chronicles’ and the book launched on Thursday (16 March). It has already achieved more than 220% of its initial £2,750 goal.
Rovenko said: “Rocketgirl’s expeditions first started as a response to the limitations imposed by the pandemic, when the options for outdoor activities became scarce, but the surreal atmosphere of emptiness has created a perfect backdrop for such imaginative explorations.”
Rovenko said all of the images were captured on film. “It’s hard to beat the magic of the traditional photographic process, and all images from the series were shot on film using the legendary Mamiya RZ67 medium format camera. The last available stock of my favourite (and now sadly discontinued) Fuji 400H Pro film with its signature colour look made these photographs even more special, and every step of the way from development to scanning and processing was hand crafted literally “in house”.
The basic version of the book – which has already been funded – will have 64 pages, but Rovenko said the number of pages will increase as the Kickstarter continues to pass other funding goals.
The book is available for a pledge of AUS $87 (£48/$58.50), while a pledge of AUS $148 (£81/$99.50) gets you a copy of the book plus a limited-edition A4 print. Other possible pledges include two copies of the book, and a copy of the book plus two A3 prints.
The book’s Kickstarter funding runs until 15 April.
I'm a New Zealander who has been living in London since the mid-1990s, shooting film seriously since the year 2000. Kosmo Foto was launched in 2012 and has since become a film brand, with the release of my first films Kosmo Foto Mono 35mm (2017) and Kosmo Foto Mono 120 (2019).
I’m doing everything I can to promote film photography in the 21st Century, and help it survive and thrive. If you want to write something for Kosmo Foto, please drop me a line at foto.dowling@gmail.com.
