Chloe Williams: Balancing Humanity, Art, and the Timeless Appeal of Analogue Photography 

For Chloe Williams, photography is more than a medium; it’s a deeply personal journey of emotional processing, a profound connection to humanity, and a timeless art form that continues to evolve with her.

In this conversation with Cluster London, Chloe opens up about balancing personal memories with artistic expression, the joys and frustrations of analogue photography, and her aspirations to merge humanity and nature in her future projects. Through her lens, we gain a glimpse of an artist who is not only documenting life but living it fully through her craft.

Hi Chloe! Your journey into photography began as a way to process emotions. How does your emotional state influence your photography today, and how has it evolved over the years?

It influences me every time I lift my camera. I find if I am happy that day, I will take more photos and then when I am sad, I don't take as much and I struggle to decide what to photograph. This year in particular, I have faced family illness and photography has centred my emotional state and helped me process what has happened. Compared to when I first started in photography, I do consider composition and the settings I use now as I desire to create photography that reflects me and my practice more.

How does the process of developing film impact your creative approach? 

Film has always been better for the work I am creating and I have always enjoyed the feeling that film can evoke from the viewer, that digital struggles to produce. However, the waiting period of film developing and scanning makes me very impatient, as I'd love to know if I have achieved the perfect shot as quickly as you can when using digital. Sometimes I can believe I had the perfect shot but then get the shock after developing that the photo was bad. This can work the opposite way, I can take a photo that surprises me post development. Film can truly surprise you. 

As a young photographer, what are the biggest challenges you are facing? 

I believe my biggest challenge is modern technology and the difficulty of being considered a genuine professional photographer, as what does that even mean these days? Technology like AI and smartphones are consistently threatening the authenticity of what is considered a photographer. The means I use are considered more "old fashioned", as my cameras are literally 43 years old and 49 years old, whilst the concept of analogue photography is centuries old. I believe it does slow down the process of photography, makes you consider settings and process, compared to taking a snap on a phone. In the first few decades of photography itself, it was easy to be considered a photographer as it was rare to see photographs. Nowadays, everyone you know owns a phone with a camera.