PRESERVING 1986 SOVIET UKRAINE
A member of the creative industry and an avid photographer, Swedish director Johan Renck is indeed no stranger to Hasselblad. Having worked with classic V System cameras along with studio shoots using the H System, he nowadays brings the portable X1D-50c along with him on his creative journeys to collect personal snapshots. On the set of his latest mini-series, Chernobyl, Johan preserved moments of reconstructed 1986 Soviet Ukraine with the X System camera, praising its files for their elevated quality and cinematic richness.
SNAPPING ON SET
Johan sees another reality when looking in the viewfinder of a camera – while working on Chernobyl, that reality was 1986 Soviet Ukraine. Everything from the wallpaper, colours, and textures down to the right buttons on a shirt was thoroughly researched to bring this historical drama to life. Recording these realistic scenes as still images, Johan captured moments of the show with his X1D-50c – “I love my Hasselblad a lot. I like the idea of taking images that are sort of snapshots with a camera that is clearly overperforming for that task because what you end up having is an image that is really cinematic and rich in detail and it sort of has incredible depth and a large frequency range.”
I’m slightly obsessed with resolution. It’s just the knowledge of knowing that an image, a file size and a sensor size that enables you to blow something up in a big way – I love that. There is something about that which I love with the Hasselblad, the knowledge of having such a massive file with amazing resolution because it gives you a wide range of opportunities of what you want to do next with the image.
THE ENDLESS OPPORTUNITIES WITH AN X1D FILE
Obsessed with resolution, Johan loves the X1D for its rich files that offer complete freedom when it comes to post-processing. He doesn’t require perfection in photography – in fact, he loves when his images have flaws. And with a more high-quality file, toying with those flaws gives him total control over the final look. “You have a file with endless opportunities, it’s not limited in any way. It makes it all more exciting.”
ABOUT JOHAN RENCK
Born in Uppsala, Sweden, multi-talented Johan Renck has not only had a successful music career, but is also an award-winning music video, commercial, film, and TV director and still photographer. Having made videos for various artists like Madonna, Beyonce, The Cardigans and David Bowie, he has also directed episodes for hit shows including Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, and Vikings. See more of his work here.
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