I’m in Halifax, NS
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☁️ It’s 23° at 7:04pm
There are 5 articles with a tag of photography.
What draws us to create photographs? What purpose do our photographs serve? Are they mere illustrations or do they become markers along an endlessly winding path? Can photographers possibly know the meaning of their images once they’ve been made and put out into the world?
I’ve been developing my own black and white film for quite a while now so doing my own colour isn’t a huge leap. I had always heard rumours that “it’s way more difficult and labour-intensive without the forgiveness” when compared to doing your own black and white. Then I did some reading and found advice from more level-headed individuals that said it’s not at all more difficult. Plus, it’s fairly inexpensive. So I decided to order up some kits, twenty more rolls of film, and give it a go. There’s this misconception that because in the olden days of a few years ago it was all done by machine it must be impossible to do by hand at home. I keep having to remind people that before machines did and made everything for us, we did it ourselves, by hand. Besides, with the loss of Carsand-Mosher from downtown, Halifax — for me anyway — has become a boring, homogenous wasteland when it comes to photo service. As a film user I’m a damn pariah in these parts. But for the sake of reducing my carbon footprint, I’m not letting anyone send a friggin three-dollar roll of film to Montreal or Toronto to be run through a twenty minute process. Madness.
I don’t think I’ve ever considered myself an artist. I have never been to art school other than a few night classes. I have taught myself just about everything I know. I made photographs because it made me happy and that is all. The idea that anyone would find anything of any meaning in my work other than “I know the guy who made that” was well beyond me. So it took a bit of poking and prodding from an almost complete stranger to get me to think differently about what I make. I had considered putting a portfolio together but it was always a backburner project with no real goal in mind.
People sometimes wonder how I make wet darkroom prints in my tiny, zero bedroom apartment. So, I thought I’d take a few simple snaps and show you how it’s done. It’s really pretty simple, and works quite well. So, imagine all of this in the dark, with only a dim red safelight to provide illumination.
I need to come clean here. I have a bit of a camera bag fetish. I don’t know when it started, though it was probably about five years ago and it has gained strength as my photography gear has changed and expanded. For the longest time I was your typical, average 35mm SLR shooter and I never really gave much thought to the bag the camera was in. I couldn’t afford more than one lens which stayed attached to the body. I hate flash so never needed to carry one. Basically I needed room to carry a single 35mm SLR body plus a small lens, a couple of rolls of film and maybe a filter or two. You can find a million different models and brands of camera bag to do that. As soon as I moved into medium-format though, I needed to put a lot more thought into how I carried my gear.
I don’t write too often anymore, but when I do, this is where you’ll find it.
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