Scottish Highlands Photo Essay by Sarah Badman-Flook

Today, we’re featuring an incredible series of landscapes from film photographer Sarah Badman-Flook. Sarah captured all the grandeur and beauty of the Scottish Highlands on 35mm film. Scroll below to read more about her connection to this amazing place…

Analog cameras and films used: Pentax ME Super (Find at KEH Camera with code SIWF21 for 5% off or on eBay), Olympus Trip 35 (Find at KEH Camera or on eBay) and other various 35mm film cameras | Fuji Superia X-TRA 400 (Find on Amazon), Fuji C200 (Find on Amazon), Kodak Gold 200 (Find on Amazon), Kodak Ultramax 400 (Find on Amazon)

Connect with Sarah: Instagram

The Scottish Highlands

A Photo Essay by Sarah Badman-Flook

Hi, I’m Sarah, and I live right on the edge of the Highlands in a small rural village.

Long before I moved to Scotland, I would hear tales from my grandfather (Gigi) of his cycle tours through the highlands or trips to the islands for work or pleasure. My grandmother lived in numerous towns on the east coast, too, when working for theatres in the 60’s and 70’s, and they would travel all over.

I would pour over their slides and photo albums looking at this beautiful country of mountains and wild coastline, empty beaches and fishing harbours. Views from the train or van, from the bike…

Finally, I started visiting Scotland a few times a year in my 20’s and early 30’s, and seven years ago we made the move 400 miles north to live here permanently.

I’ve been back to shooting film for around the same amount of time – when my grandad died I inherited his film cameras – and am inspired by the landscapes around me, the very different light and the journeys we take.

I’m always searching for the perfect photo to remember or capture an emotion.

I want nostalgia, dreams of trips taken, or deep longing for a place to come across in my photos – I guess we are all searching for this.

My grandfather grew up in Brasil before moving to the UK in the 1940’s. The Portuguese language has a word that does not translate directly into English. Saudade: The feeling of nostalgic longing for something or someone, which has been lost.

I feel that for my grandfather and Scotland, for the moments we sang (badly) The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond together when I was caring for him, the hours we reminisced about places in this beautiful country he loved to visit and I had started to, too.

And although he was here and I have walked in his footsteps, we will never have that moment together. Saudades.

Thank you so much, Sarah! You can find more of Sarah’s work on Instagram.

Check out all of our film photography features here, and if you want to have your own film work featured on the site, view our submissions process!

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