Great article. Don’t get hung up on how much you are legging behind. You chose a challenging and time consuming project.
Kudos to you. I probably already would have given up.
And I agree with perfectlight, a zine -maybe even a handmade zine with handmade prints in a very small edition- at the end of your project would be the perfect solution. But I assume you already have been thinking about that! 😉
That's a fascinating insight into the process you're going through, thanks for sharing. As someone who grew up working as a news photographer in the old B/W film days I can feel your love for the whole analogy scene.
I used to walk into work of a morning, take a deep breath and say, " man, I love the smell of fixer in the morning". 🤣
I agree with your thoughts on Instagram, it's probably the worst place of all to share images, but very hard to divorce yourself from it. A bit easier now with the explosion of AI, I started to feel that all I was doing was providing Zuck and co with some more content to scrape into their AI plagiarism machine.
Sadly that all went out the window with the advent of digital, there was significant cost savings for the media companies involved. I'd still like to dabble but no longer have the room available. Maybe there's a club or something I could look into😊.
Maaaaaaaan, what a refreshing read! And I cannot agree more with "Substack is a wonderful medium to fire your creative juices. Instagram is just the opposite". Subscribed already and waiting for the next one ❤️👌🏼!!
you are right but also wrong: the online platforms are not good for displaying your photos (any screen is lit from behind compared with a print which is lit from the front), but the online platforms are almost the only option. regarding online part - a personal website will display your work better than a social media platform as the platform will compress your image and will restrict the size.
what can you do? print your work in a form of a zine, organise a competition and the winner ... you know yourself. or try to see if you can sell the zine.
one thing i know for sure: you're doing great work, don't give up!
p.s. i've made my life easier by giving the film to a lab for development. i'm doing all the scanning and if i want to print i will print from digital.
Thanks! I really appreciate the feedback. I may well follow your suggestion and send my films out to be developed - one thing less on my plate. I worry though that if I do this I'll never learn the subtleties of varying development techniques to get the best negatives for the prints.
yes, you are right: you can't learn the tricks by reading books, you have to do it yourself. personally i'm not interested in that side but you are not me. might be the case to just get a bit less pressure for a while and after you are confident with printing, go back into developing films
Great article. Don’t get hung up on how much you are legging behind. You chose a challenging and time consuming project.
Kudos to you. I probably already would have given up.
And I agree with perfectlight, a zine -maybe even a handmade zine with handmade prints in a very small edition- at the end of your project would be the perfect solution. But I assume you already have been thinking about that! 😉
Thanks Susanne. As you know, I'm already thinking about a zine! Also, maybe prints on an annual subscription tier or something like that.
I am sure you will figure something out!
That's a fascinating insight into the process you're going through, thanks for sharing. As someone who grew up working as a news photographer in the old B/W film days I can feel your love for the whole analogy scene.
I used to walk into work of a morning, take a deep breath and say, " man, I love the smell of fixer in the morning". 🤣
I agree with your thoughts on Instagram, it's probably the worst place of all to share images, but very hard to divorce yourself from it. A bit easier now with the explosion of AI, I started to feel that all I was doing was providing Zuck and co with some more content to scrape into their AI plagiarism machine.
Wow Ross that must have been an awesome job! Do you still get into a darkroom, or have you left all that behind?
Sadly that all went out the window with the advent of digital, there was significant cost savings for the media companies involved. I'd still like to dabble but no longer have the room available. Maybe there's a club or something I could look into😊.
Maaaaaaaan, what a refreshing read! And I cannot agree more with "Substack is a wonderful medium to fire your creative juices. Instagram is just the opposite". Subscribed already and waiting for the next one ❤️👌🏼!!
Thank you! Appreciate the kind comment.
you are right but also wrong: the online platforms are not good for displaying your photos (any screen is lit from behind compared with a print which is lit from the front), but the online platforms are almost the only option. regarding online part - a personal website will display your work better than a social media platform as the platform will compress your image and will restrict the size.
what can you do? print your work in a form of a zine, organise a competition and the winner ... you know yourself. or try to see if you can sell the zine.
one thing i know for sure: you're doing great work, don't give up!
p.s. i've made my life easier by giving the film to a lab for development. i'm doing all the scanning and if i want to print i will print from digital.
Thanks! I really appreciate the feedback. I may well follow your suggestion and send my films out to be developed - one thing less on my plate. I worry though that if I do this I'll never learn the subtleties of varying development techniques to get the best negatives for the prints.
yes, you are right: you can't learn the tricks by reading books, you have to do it yourself. personally i'm not interested in that side but you are not me. might be the case to just get a bit less pressure for a while and after you are confident with printing, go back into developing films