Things I Have Seen
I started shooting film on February 23rd, 2019. I’ve grown since that first roll, but I’m proud of the very first work I did.
In my latest film projects, I’m working with an enlarger to produce physical prints directly from the negative. Functionally, an enlarger is a camera in reverse, producing and focusing the light projected through an image on a film negative onto a photosensitive paper.
In order to really “see” the negative—to view it in positive space—we must first take yet another picture. This is the kind of thing that makes photography an art and not a science.
I shoot predominantly on a Minolta XD-5 with the MD lens system. I rotate among Fujifilm, Kodak gold, Portra, and Ilford on a regular basis. On reserve, I have a Pentax ME-F (the world’s first autofocusing SLR) and newly an Olympus OM-1 in the process of restoration. When I shoot digital, I use a Sony alpha-6000. Usually this is on a long lens for sports photography.
The “photograph” is an interesting construction these days. It’s hard to nail down what version of an image constitutes the final work when we use computational photography, whether we know it or not. Every projection is an abstract interpretation of a moment, not a concrete source of truth. Often the projection is more vivid than reality.
Darkroom Printing
I’ve begun making darkroom prints in my apartment in Harlem. I use a Durst M605 Color enlarger to re-project negatives onto Ilford Multigrade photo paper and develop it using RA-4 chemistry. Currently, I’m printing from my limited B&W back catalog, but I’d like to make prints from negatives that others have shot too, while I continue to add rolls to my catalog.
Do you have film you’d like printed by a friend?
My first full set of finished prints