Life develops

There was a time in my life that I awoke early, crawled from my bed, and dragged to the car every day just to stand in a dark room for hours and hours until my eyes hurt so badly and were so twisted that I ended up at the doctor.

Once upon a time, I lived and breathed D76. I'm certainly not the first to wax of the glimmer of discovery and wonder to be found in the activation of silver through light. I spent five beautiful years sculpting with photons, years I couldn't have appreciated or enjoyed more without sleeping in the darkroom.

But now chemistry has all washed away. Digital has taken over. I just hope that I can find a way to make digital more than just the same old shiny pictures everyone's got now.

I'm trying to get back into it, but it requires time and even though I have lots of that, I also have lots of stress and lots of need to unwind, which does not produce the kind of attitude that says 'HEY! Pick yourself up and go to that weird place and take the shoebox with glass in it!' Or, even, 'Call that lady friend over and we'll play with some light!'

I like lines and shapes, in a very Weston sort of way. I also like people, again in a Weston sort of way. I don't do as much contortion, though; I prefer a more natural setting and positioning. I also really like how clothing can change an image and am thus not married to nudes. Interestingly, the most attractive things about my pictures are how emotive they are, though that is an attribute I have never sought. As a result, photography became a way to connect with people. A way to explore and expose how I feel about individuals and the character I see in them. Line and texture are fantastic, but the intimacies that little shoebox is capable of displaying are quite mysterious. In turn, the shadow and contrast comes, not from tricks in the darkroom, but from the personalities of my subjects themselves.

Maybe I can take some time during spring break to work with someone again. I am curios to see who I will discover.