The Darkroom & the Glove
Thanks to a very long magazine career that spanned Vancouver, the rest of Canada and many magazines from abroad I have a huge file of negatives, slides and prints that nobody I know is aware of its size with the exception of perhaps my Rosemary.
Then in and around 2000 when I embarked in a new career of thinking myself to be an artist I took many and many more photographs. I shot lots of film previewing without knowing the era of the digital-is-cheap-so-I-will-take-more-photos-to-nail-it.
On a rainy and dreary Vancouver evening (today), what could be better than to cross my garden deck into my oficina and take out a file at random. And of course, not so random it is. I am not about to go to my files in search of lawyers when I can randomly search my files of women.
In years past it was expensive. I would make a large mug of tea and go to my darkroom. I would pour the fixer, stop bath and photographic developer into the proper trays. I would then go to my negatives just as I am doing now. I would slip my choice into my enlarger negative carrier and print until I was satisfied that I had the best print.
Now I can scan negatives and slides, colour negatives and 6x7cm transparencies. If I want to I can then look at the image in my Dell CRT monitor and press print. Out of my Canon Pro-1 a few minutes later I would get as perfect a print to my personal satisfaction and standard.
And all of this would happen and is happening with a pleasant light on my desk. The air is pure and there are no fixer fumes.
Originally published at blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com.
