Megh is a lifelong multimedia artist and performer from Kansas City. Their work explores elements of grief, shame, stigma, harm reduction and family dynamics as well as methods of subverting the patriarchy. Often incorporating elements of sigil construction, symbolism, and embedding plants or other physical components in their work. Upon entering into the film department they quickly ran into frustrations with digital filmmaking. Vintage film cameras and the required film tend to be finicky and expensive, and require additional production time to send it out for second party processing.
Being impatient and on a tight budget they decided to experiment with an inexpensive 35mm Canon A1 still camera and Ilford black and white film. Once they fell in love with the look of and quick turn around time of 35mm they found a way to combine both technologies. They prefer analogue methods of making and a very tactile creative and editing process. One method they have been exploring in their personal work, as well as in community engaged projects is shooting on 35mm black and white film. Megh develops the film themselves before laying it out on a backlit table. Then using scissors and scotch tape they piece together the film by hand. When completed it is then recorded using a digital camera that shoots the film as it is pulled through a back lit mechanized device made for scanning film as still frames. Combining analogue techniques and then using a digital camera, to record the images, and editing software to adjust the exposure or contrast. This results in a moving image piece that is made up of still images, and functions similarly to a slide show. Embracing the strengths and weaknesses of film, scratches, dust, under and overexposure, the imperfections that show the uniquely human hand involved in creating art.