Slowing down

If the success of my photography business was gauged by the amount of blog entries I post, it may seem that work has slowed down.

And you'd be right.. well, partly. Just not quite in that sense.

Let me catch you up since my last post. Around the end of November, I decided not to invest in that new MacBook (even though this one is going on six years old..). Instead, I invested in myself.

I'd say about 80 percent of my photography-related time in college was spent in the darkroom. There was nothing digital about my degree. (I resented this for a while, but now I respect it more than ever).

So by 'invested in myself,' I mean trusted myself to know this amazing process from beginning to end. From film to capture to print.

To slow down.

To think deliberately about the image you want to create and to be completely involved every step of the way.

To enjoy the long process in comparison to the digital experience, which really is completed when you finish a shoot and shuffle those high-meg files around in post processing, then move them to sit in a terabyte drive on your desk. 

That's fine. I do that. But I needed more.

Grandpa, 82 | Mamiya 645, Delta 100

Da, studio | Agfa 8x10 view camera, Illford HP5

I needed to get my hands dirty. To touch the image before it becomes a print and get excited when the first sign of a photo bleeds through on to the paper. Ahhhhh! 

So awesome. 

 

Ok, I'm not reinventing the wheel here.. lots of folks have darkrooms and everyone used to.. but now I have one in my basement.. right below my feet as we speak.

And now that it is finished, I will begin offering sessions using the 8x10 view camera (top right corner of the collage) as well as other formats (medium and 35mm). I also plan to open the darkroom to photographers who work with film and to those who want to learn more about this process.

I hope that slowing down and becoming more focused and taking an active role in my work will help my growth as a photographer and maybe do the same for someone else.