Bodies and Spaces: A Visual Experiment on 6×7 Film
Date: January 12, 2025
There are shoots that unfold like rituals. Others that feel like documents of something fragile. And then there are the rare ones — the ones that become a personal chapter, a conversation between memory, space, and the human body.
This project, shot entirely on 6×7 film, belongs to that third category.
It began as a simple idea: exploring the relationship between bodies and the architecture that contains them. But it soon became something else — an emotional dialogue between two cameras, two lenses, two eras of my life. The Pentax 67II with the 105mm Takumar, and the older Pentax 6×7 with the 45mm Takumar passed down to me by my father. One precise and contemporary, the other heavy, imperfect, and charged with history.
Together, they shaped the visual language of this session.
Pentax 67II - SMC Takumar 105mm - Kodak Tmax 400 film Processed in Xtol (1:1 @ 24°) standard
Scan from neg - © Niccolò Barone - All rights reserved
The Location: An Empty Space Waiting to Be Read
We shot in an old country house on the edge of Modena (Italy) — a place I often use when I need silence. The floors were dusty, the windows high, the walls stained with the memory of work that ended years ago.
Nothing was staged. No props. No constructed moodboard.
Only a model, an empty space, natural light drifting in, and two cameras loaded with 120 film.
The idea was simple:
let the body discover the space, and let the space reshape the body.
I didn’t give the model a narrative. No story to perform.
I just asked her to breathe, to listen to the room, to follow the geometry of the walls and the emptiness between them.
Slowly, the loft became a huge resonating chamber where gestures expanded, softened, or folded into themselves.
The 6×7 format naturally enhanced this dynamic — the frame felt wide enough to host the full relationship between the subject and the surrounding architecture. It wasn’t just portraiture. It wasn’t fashion. It was something more abstract and physical.
Pentax 67II + 105mm Takumar: The Lens of Intimacy
The first part of the session was shot with the Pentax 67II paired with the 105mm Takumar f/2.4 — a combination known for its gentle depth of field and almost sculptural rendering of the human form.
For me, this lens is the gateway to intimacy.
Not in the sense of closeness — but in the way it carves softness around the subject.
The fall-off is delicate, the contrast natural. Skin feels alive, not over-defined. Highlights bloom just enough to create atmosphere.
With this setup, I stayed close.
I followed the line of her shoulders, the curve of her back as she leaned against a concrete pillar, the way light sliced diagonally across her face around noon. Each frame with the 105mm felt like a secret whispered between the subject and the lens.
The Pentax 67II, despite its size, has a fluidity I’ve always loved.
The shutter feels authoritative, but it doesn’t disrupt the presence of the subject. The advance lever, the focusing throw — everything slows down the process in the best way.
A photograph is not taken: it is offered by the moment.
Pentax 67II - SMC Takumar 105mm - Kodak Tmax 400 film Processed in Xtol (1:1 @ 24°) standard
Scan from neg - © Niccolò Barone - All rights reserved
Scan from neg - © Niccolò Barone - All rights reserved
Pentax 6×7 + 45mm Takumar: The Lens of Memory and Space
The second part of the shoot used a very different tool.
The Pentax 6×7 — the older model with the wooden grip — and the 45mm Takumar, a lens I have always associated with movement, landscape, and air.
This camera is heavy in a way that feels ancestral.
It still carries the weight of when my father used it. I remember being a child watching him load film, smelling the chemistry, hearing the deep slap of the mirror.
When he gave it to me, he said only one thing: “This camera wants time. Don’t rush it.”
Shooting with it is like entering another mode of perception.
While the 105mm isolates, the 45mm includes.
It demands awareness of everything:
the model, the architecture, the corners of the frame, the gestures that spill outward.
With it, I stepped back. I let the environment swallow the figure, then let the figure reclaim the environment.
She walked slowly through the loft, tracing lines on the floor with her bare feet. Sometimes she stopped near the window to let the light wash over her. Other times she lay on the ground, turning the concrete into something almost tender.
The wide perspective emphasized the relationship between body and space.
Arms stretching upward looked like gestures toward escape.
A bent posture echoed the geometry of a peeling wall.
A still moment felt monumental because the environment echoed it back.
This camera brings memory into every frame.
And in this project, memory was essential.
Pentax 67II - SMC Takumar 105mm - Kodak Tmax 400 film Processed in Xtol (1:1 @ 24°) standard
Scan from neg - © Niccolò Barone - All rights reserved
Scan from neg - © Niccolò Barone - All rights reserved
A Dialogue Between Two Cameras, and Two Histories
The session evolved into a conversation between the lenses:
• The 105mm whispered,
• the 45mm responded.
One brought me close, the other pushed me back.
One focused on skin and breath, the other on structure and silence.
One represented the photographer I’ve become; the other represented the photographer I grew from.
I realized something as I shot:
the cameras were shaping the emotional temperature of the images as much as the model was.
This is why I still love film.
Because tools are not invisible — they leave fingerprints on the process, on the mood, on the gesture.
Pentax 67II - SMC Takumar 105mm - Kodak Tmax 400 film Processed in Xtol (1:1 @ 24°) standard
Scan from neg - © Niccolò Barone - All rights reserved
Why 6×7 Film Matters for This Type of Work
From a technical and aesthetic standpoint, the 6×7 negative was perfect for this project:
• huge surface area → tonal richness, especially in shadows
• beautiful skin gradients
• architectural lines stay clean and honest
• depth feels natural, never exaggerated
• the images look like memories, not files
In an era where digital sharpness is almost violent, the 6×7 format restores breathing space.
It gives the body dignity.
It gives the location poetry.
Conclusion: A Study of Presence
“Corpi e spazi” became more than a visual experiment.
It became a way to honor two cameras, two eras, two emotional registers:
• The Pentax 67II — my present, my craft, my precision.
• The Pentax 6×7 from my father — my origin, my history, my inheritance.
Through them, I rediscovered how deeply photography connects what we see with where we come from.
This project is a reminder that the relationship between body and space is never static — it shifts, expands, contracts, breathes.
Just like we do.
© Niccolò Barone - All rights reserved