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Matinee: 'The OG of Film Photography'
26 September 2026
Saturday matinees long ago let us escape from the ordinary world to the island of the Swiss Family Robinson or the mutinous decks of the Bounty. Why not, we thought, escape the usual fare here with Saturday matinees of our favorite photography films?
So we're pleased to present the 675th in our series of Saturday matinees today: My Unlikely Friendship with the OG of Film Photography.
This 13:20 video by Ayrton Kaleo tells the story of his encounter on the streets of New York with Bernie, the Old Guy of film photography.
It begins on the street as Bernie walks by Kaleo who asks him to repeat what he said as he passed him. "I said, 'Real photographers use film.'"
Name one major gallery accepting digital prints, Bernie challenges him. Kaleo doesn't take the bait.
But Kaleo is intrigued enough to hunt Bernie down again and by the end of the encounter makes a new friend. Bernie explains himself, offers film to Kaleo and even insists on buying him a film camera because, he says, you've got to have your own gear.
Meanwhile Alex Lingaas sent Kaleo film of Bernie as an 18-year-old shooting on the street. And scenes from that are nicely spliced into the conversation.
He was wearing a nose ring in the early clips because "when in Rome do as the Romans do." Dress like the people you want to photograph, in short.
He has an empathy for his subjects that includes compensating them for letting him take their photo. "Hey, Blood," he says to one guy lying on the sidewalk, "You had breakfast yet? You got socks?"
You've got to give back, he says. Guy gives you a photo for your book, "you buy him a sleeping bag or a tent or a pair of Doc Martin boots."
Bernie lost his leg in a motorcycle accident so he doesn't use a Leica, he says. He'd have to be able to run if he had an expensive camera.
"Life is about change," he points out.
Then he tells the story about taking a photograph of a guy who looked like Colonel Sanders. But the guy insisted he didn't want to be photographed. Bernie asked him why. The Colonel told him he just didn't want to.
"Listen," Bernie insisted, "how are people supposed to remember you when you're dead?" The Colonel agreed to have his photo taken.
A month later Bernie sees the Colonel's son and asks him where the Colonel is. Dead, the son says. Bernie thinks he's kidding. But he's not.
"Well, here's his picture," Bernie says, handing the guy his photo of the Colonel. The son can't believe anyone took a photo of his father. Nobody ever had.
There's more, but we suspect we've proved this isn't about the importance of film photography. And it's a bit more than about being a street photographer. You might say it has something to do with how to live.