Out of the Darkroom, Into the Streets
From Zuccotti Park to Pennsylvania’s coal-fields, Caleb Savage is matching his long-mastered darkroom skills with important images and social inquiry.
Routinely, photographers mention their first childhood camera — a hand-me-down, usually — as the moment they were gripped by image-making. Those who came to the medium later, often pinpoint alchemy within a highschool or college darkroom as the moment they got the shutterbug. Caleb Savage is an usual hybrid; he was making, at a mere 10-years of age, darkroom prints. His photographic practice has always balanced shooting with developing; two skill-sets that inform one another and cannot, after a decade of shooting, be separated.
A recent graduate of New York University Tisch’s Department of Photography and Imaging, Savage sees himself as a technician, celebrates the physical processes of creating photographs and devotes time to operating the equipment at the Bushwick Community Darkroom.
Savage roams has made photos of picturesque Paris with his own spin; portraits in his hometown Carversville, PA; and altered landscapes and people in the formerly booming Anthracite coal region. Savage documented Occupy Wall Street in New York City.
In this interview, Savage opens up on what makes him tick and elaborates further on his craft and his projects, in particular his ongoing series Hard Coal was featured previously.
Please tell us about yourself.
Caleb Savage (CS): I grew up in Carversville, Pennsylvania. It’s a small village of a few hundred people. Whenever I bring my city-dweller friends back home, they tell me it’s the middle of nowhere. I spent a lot of time exploring on my bike as a kid, and even more once I started driving. I really enjoy driving aimlessly, and I often find myself revisiting the same spots. Even though I’m firmly planted in New York City at this point, I feel like being a Pennsylvanian is an important part of my identity.
You’ve been into photography for more than a decade now. What is it about photography that draws you into it?
CS: My dad was a newspaper photographer and photo editor for a long time, so a certain portion of it has to be inherited. I first became seriously interested when I went to Boy Scout camp when I was 10-years-old and took the Photography Merit Badge, which involved learning to print photos in the darkroom.
“It took me a while, but I’ve finally come to terms with being more of a technician than artist.”
Working in the darkroom was what first got me really excited about making images. I was fascinated by the technical aspects of the light and chemistry, as well as the possibilities of visual storytelling. I think the technical aspects of photography and the physical process of making a photograph have always been my primary attraction to the medium.
How would you describe your photographic style? What do you usually enjoy taking photographs of?
CS: I like to wander and explore; I like nature and I like ambiguity. I’m interested in the ways humans change landscapes and the ways in which they bounce back.
Tell us about Hard Coal.
CS: The project is about the Anthracite Coal Region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Anthracite is a type of high-grade coal. It is physically hard, energy-dense, and comparatively clean burning in contrast to the softer bituminous coal found in Western Pennsylvania and other coal-producing areas of North America. Anthracite has historically been used as fuel for steam trains and home heating systems, which started to become obsolete in the early to mid 20th century. Anthracite production has been on a steady decline since the Great Depression, and this downturn in production has had significant effects on the regional economy.
CS: I became interested in the Anthracite region after reading about the underground mine fire in Centralia, which has been burning since 1962. After doing research on the area, I learned that my paternal ancestors lived in the nearby town of Mahanoy City at the turn of the 20th century. Driving down Highway 61 for the first time, I was captivated by the massive strip mines in varying states of abandonment, piles of waste coal the size of mansions, and streams which run bright orange due to acid mine drainage. In spite of the environmental damage caused by 200 years of mining, the landscape of the ridge and valley Appalachians is breathtakingly beautiful. In spite of the economic depression that permeates the region, it is full of communities which are tight-knit, caring, and proud of their heritage.
CS: With the project, I explore the intersection between my family’s heritage, the industrial and labor history of the region, and the environmental effects of resource extraction. As I continue to develop it, I hope to focus more on the personal stories of people who live and work in the Anthracite region. I’d love to hear from (and possibly interview and photograph) anyone who lives in or comes from the area.
You’ve done plenty other projects such as those that document the streets of Paris, the people and places of your hometown, and even Occupy Wall Street. Among all these, which would you say is the most memorable for you and why?
Living in Paris really challenged me artistically. I felt very boxed in, and a tremendous pressure to avoid coming home with standard tourist photos. It’s hard to really experience such a beautiful and fascinating city with a camera glued to your eye.
The images I made in Paris are a lot less sharp and precise than I normally make. I was surrounded by scenes from postcards, and I wanted to reject that sense of classic Parisian beauty and show what I was feeling.
What, for you, is the importance of shooting on film in this day and age?
CS: When shooting large format or medium format, the quality I can get out of film is unparalleled. It’s amazing to look at a 4×5 negative through a grain magnifier under the enlarger and see the tiniest details emerge from the film’s inherent grain.
However, a lot of the time when I’m shooting film it’s on 35mm or with a junk camera. When I’m shooting just for fun and not for a serious project, I love the unpredictability of shooting a roll and putting it into a drawer for a few weeks or months and then being surprised when I get it developed. It’s especially gratifying to get a box of slides back from the lab and view them in a projector.
What and/or who inspires you?
CS: My biggest photographic influences are Bernd and Hilla Becher and deadpan photographers like Stephen Shore, Alec Soth, and many others. I am fascinated by the American landscape and its iconography. I’m really interested in industrial archaeology, but feel very conflicted by the type of ruin porn which is becoming increasingly popular.
What’s the most important thing you’ve learned when it comes to photography?
CS: It took me a while, but I’ve finally come to terms with being more [of a] technician than artist. My attraction to photography stems from its mechanical, scientific nature, and I try to practice it in a way that stimulates my interests and makes me happy.
It’s been an important step for me to be able to go out and experience the world without looking through a camera. For a long time, having a camera around my neck was a sort of crutch, but I’ve found it really useful to force myself to go out and experience the world in a less mediated way and take more time to plan what I want to shoot, coming back later if necessary. I guess this is sort of the antithesis of the Lomography philosophy in a certain way, but I definitely think there’s a time and a place for “don’t think, just shoot.” I love taking a new or weird camera out for a test spin, and I love the random surprises I get from developing a roll that’s been sitting in a drawer for a few months.
Tell us about the Bushwick Community Darkroom.
It’s a fantastic resource and a great community. The Bushwick Community Darkroom provides affordable darkroom rental and film processing to image-makers in the New York area. I’ve been working there for almost three years.
My job is mostly to keep all the machines running — we have a color film processor and a color paper processor which are total beasts full of tubes and wires and gears and pumps and motors. I really enjoy getting my hands dirty and finding MacGyver solutions to keep them chugging along. Color darkroom printing is really a lost art, even more so than black and white. It’s exciting to provide access and training for the next generation of analog photographers to work in fully analog color.
What keeps you busy these days?
I have a desk job that (unfortunately) takes up most of my time. I’m hoping to get back out to Pennsylvania this fall to keep working on Hard Coal. I really want to delve deeper into the social history of the Anthracite region, and perhaps expand into video or audio interviews.
“For a long time, having a camera around my neck was a sort of crutch.”
I’ve also been playing around a bit with analog motion picture equipment. I keep buying film projectors at flea markets. I’m hoping to create some installation work using looped 16mm film. Movie projectors were one of the first machines I fell in love with as a child and it’s sad to see them disappear from theaters.
Final words?
Keep buying film! Especially slide film. I’m dreading the seemingly inevitable discontinuation of E6 products.
See more of Caleb Savage’s work at NYU — Tisch and his website.
Originally published by Lomography.
