Pann Lim’s Clever Reminder That Film is Not Dead
Pann Lim, the patriarch of the Singaporean family art collective Holycrap, shares his passion for film photography through this apt and clever zine.
I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since my first Singapore Art Book Fair experience, among the highlights of which was grabbing this clever zine by Pann Lim. I’ve been following the creative adventures of the Singapore family art collective Holycrap for quite some time now, especially delighted that their patriarch, Pann, has been shooting film. So when I spotted boxes upon boxes of what looked like film at first, there was no way I wasn’t getting one.
So, after a shy and hasty introduction, I told him I shoot film too and whipped out my trusty Pentax Espio point and shoot. I asked to snap a photo of Pann and his daughter Aira, grabbed this zine, then off I went, seeing a small crowd starting to gather around the Holycrap booth, with some recognizing the look of film and remarking at how witty the zine was.
Film is Not Dead, at its core, is Pann’s love letter to film photography, which remains part of his creative arsenal. Everything was cleverly thought out to look like you’re unboxing an actual film roll, effectively mirroring the experience of film photographers like Pann. The box opens to reveal a 36-paged booklet rolled to fit inside the plastic canister. As it says on the box, the photos featured were shot with Kodak Ultramax 400, which also happens to be his favorite film. As a film photographer, I easily understood why.
With such a small booklet, you can expect that the photos will be small as well. I wish they had also put up a link where we can see them in larger size. But it’s easy to see that each of them are candid and deeply personal slices of life. They’re neatly arranged into categories to give context on what they’re about, with short descriptions by Holycrap matriarch Claire.
While it may seem really late that I’m writing about it a year later, turns out that now is the best time. Film is Not Dead recently bagged a Wood Pencil award (equivalent to Bronze) under Fine Art & Conceptual Photography from the 2019 D&AD Awards for its “original and creative use of photography for both advertising and design.”
Film is Not Dead is, hands down, one of the coolest zines a film photographer can ever add to their collection. The way it’s made and packaged also make it a handy — and definitely attention-grabbing — zine to carry around for sharing with fellow zine fans.
Follow Pann Lim and holycrap.sg on Instagram to stay updated with their latest zines and creative projects.
