Fotofast Brisbane Film Lab

How did this place come about and what made it different from the start?
Phil: The lab originated in 1988 in a major downtown shopping Mall in Brisbane and was originally operated by FujiFilm. Fotofast purchased the lab in June 1990 and relocated from downtown to the suburbs in June 2014. Fotofast was always at the leading edge of photo lab technology. One of the first to adopt digital printing, offering the widest range of photo services. Wide format signage, fine art and canvas printing, and photo gifting, while never forgetting their analog beginnings, have been processing film for 35 years.

What part of the day, space, or creative process do those who work here enjoy the most?
Issy: The best part about our space is the team that fills it, it wouldn’t be the same without our awesome crew. As for the creative process, we love scanning as you get to bring to life and experience some pretty spectacular frames that our clientele have shot around the world. It inspires our shooting and travel needs. Apart from the lab work, we love meeting all sorts of characters that come through our doors and seeing many familiar faces from the creative community.

If someone is coming in for the first time, what should they not miss?
Issy: Before you walk in our doors, we have a glass window full of posters for upcoming local events. These are from customers in Brisbane who are running exhibitions, workshops and more. While we are finding your negatives to collect, visitors shouldn’t miss our tray of free AA and AAA batteries. We save these from all disposables we develop, as they generally only use about 20% of the charge and we think it’s wasteful to dispose of them.

What has been an interesting challenge that has made you rethink something about the project?
Issy: With a large amount of submissions, it has been an interesting challenge deciphering what I find a great portfolio of images and a great portfolio for this project. I wanted to focus on the community instead of only the professional photographers who shoot models. I found this was important to capture the essence of Brisbane that our lab is representing in this magazine edition, as well as maintain diversity.

What influence, idea, or reference continues to shape the way you work today?
Phil: We have gone back to the future by upgrading our film scanning to 4 Noritsu scanners and adding a Noritsu V50 processor to our existing C41 processor. Service First - Quality Always has been our mantra since 1990. Our team takes great care to help our film users make shooting on film a repeatable, enjoyable experience. Encourage customers to print their photos so their memories last for decades.

What place, project, or person has inspired you recently and why?
Issy: A person that has inspired me lately is Dr. César Puechmarin, a wildlife veterinarian and fi lm photographer who is a customer at Fotofast. Mixing his love for wildlife and fi lm, he shoots beautiful work that I have been lucky enough to scan. He recently released a book with all images being developed and processed by us, which we have on the front counter for visitors to look through. As I have very similar interests, it is inspiring to see César succeed in merging these two loves.

If your space could invite someone to collaborate for a day, who would it be and what would you do together?
Issy: Felix suggested Marie Kondo to collaborate on our shop front layout for the day which I find brilliant as it is a pretty chaotic combination of a vast variety of film rolls, different reusable camera options, disposables, and a range of accessories like the Holga flash, Iford led travel case, Lomography tins etc.

Is there an object, corner or detail of the place that has a story that few people know?
Issy: The Fridge in our store room / dark room is a time capsule of across the years, filled with postcards from team members travelling, staff photos from in store to at parties together, and some inside joke material. As we are a small lab, our team spends a lot of time together and many life long friendships have started to form in our four walls.

If this project were a city, a book, or a record, which would it be and why?
Issy: If this project were a record, I would say it’d have to be Wildflower by the Avalanches. It plays a lot in store and holds some similar chaotic and quirky energy that we have in the lab. So this would definitely reflect the customers that we chose to represent us in the magazine.

Answers by Phil Gresham (owner) and Isabella Rae-Argo (lab tech).