IJM Photography — Blog & Projects

Four decades behind the lens. Six years of sharing the journey.

Welcome. I’m Ian — photographer, horn player, and writer living in the Vendée, near the Loire-Atlantique border. This blog has been running since 2019 and shows no sign of stopping.

You’ll find black and white film work, travel essays, orchestra photography, philosophical digressions about why any of us bother pressing the shutter, and the occasional camera review written by someone with strong opinions and a perhaps unreasonable attachment to grain. No algorithms chose what appears here. No agency wrote it. Just forty years of looking, and six of writing it down.

Start anywhere. Stay as long as you like.

Latest from the Field

  • Making the Ordinary Less Ordinary: Rollei RPX 400 at Pont Caffino

    Making the Ordinary Less Ordinary: Rollei RPX 400 at Pont Caffino

    After 40 years behind the lens, still learning. Explore Rollei RPX 400 shot handheld in flat light at Pont Caffino, France. A honest look at dodging, burning, and making ordinary prints less ordinary in Lightroom. Read more

  • February 2026 — Clisson with the Nikon FE

    February 2026 — Clisson with the Nikon FE

    Maybe I’m a little stubborn, just maybe, but I’m insisting on using my Nikon FE and for my health I have to get out. I had some Tri-X that needed using, and some HP5+ left over, so time to use it. And it does my mental health good too—getting out of the house despite the… Read more

  • More Light Than We Imagine

    More Light Than We Imagine

    Night street photography in Nantes with HP5+ and Nikon FE—how city light surprises after dark, even with shaky hands and tired eyes. Read more

  • Waiting for the Light: Reclaiming the Cathedral with Ilford HP5+

    Waiting for the Light: Reclaiming the Cathedral with Ilford HP5+

    Ian’s contemplative journey through Nantes’ Saint-Pierre Cathedral, captured on Ilford HP5 Plus film with a Nikon FE. This black and white photography essay explores reclaiming sacred space from municipal spectacle, celebrating grain, silence, and winter light. A meditation on film photography as spiritual practice and architectural reverence in France’s historic cathedrals. Read more

  • Sit Rep IJM

    Sit Rep IJM

    This is not a recovery story. It’s not inspirational. It doesn’t end with light breaking through clouds. This is a raw, unfiltered Sit Rep—written in the thick of exhaustion, fury, and familial love that persists despite everything. If you’ve ever smiled while screaming inside, resented the people you’d die for, or wondered why “self-care” feels… Read more

  • The Collection

    The Collection

    Six luxury fine art prints, made to last — from Hangzhou’s misty paths to Shenzhen’s sizzling night streets. Each printed on archival paper, signed, and shipped with care. A quiet collection for those who see deeply. Read more

Featured Projects

  1. The UK Chronicles
    Light, minimalism, and preparation.
    Shot entirely on the Fujifilm X100F during a recent solo journey through Britain — a deliberate exercise in traveling light, seeing deeply, and preparing for the sensory overload of China.
  2. The Film Archives
    Memory in monochrome.
    A vault unlocked: black and white film photographs from Nantes, Clisson, and beyond — captured long before this blog existed. Grain, patience, and timeless moments.
  3. Photography Philosophy
    Why do we do this?
    Not a tutorial. Not a gear guide. A quiet exploration of purpose — the “why” behind the viewfinder. For those who photograph not to post, but to feel.
  4. The Orchestra Visit to China
    Culture, chaos, and concert halls.
    A visual symphony from the road with the orchestra — temples, trains, backstage glances, and the electric silence before the first note.

About the Photographer

I am not an influencer. I am not a brand.
I am a photographer, ever so slightly stubborn, analogue at heart, digital when needed, and fiercely independent. I’ve been developing my own film since the 1980s. I built this blog in 2019, not for followers, but for focus.

I do not outsource my editing. I do not chase trends. I shoot what moves me, and I hope, sometimes, it moves you too.

“Commercial editing offers and unsolicited partnerships will not be published or replied to. This space is sacred; for art, not advertising.”

A Note from a Reader

“j’adore… il y a des jours avec, et les jours sans….”
— A kind visitor, September 2025

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