I think the big problem for us is that we don’t have the time to finish the raw materials and then remove ourselves from it for a while so we can come back with a slightly more objective eye and figure out what to make it into. Six months goes by too fast.

On a side note, have you read Art and Fear?

courage! i know you can do it and i’m rooting for you.

I think you should read Douglas Coupland, either Shampoo Planet, All Families are Psychotic or Generation X (yes it’s where the term came from supposedly.) I’m not sure why I’m recommending him to you, but I felt it in my bones. He seems to have a sort of cerebral irreverence, which I sense in you sometimes (that’s a compliment, by the way.)

I also appreciate anyone who is willing to put M*A*S*H on their list.

Happy Thanksgiving

It was so fun to have you visit last weekend! I love this part of your blog…. and I really like what you wrote about the darkroom. I overheard one of the maintenance guys at school this morning talking about a ’seepage problem.’ If I had a list of words I don’t like, seepage would be at the top.

I work digitally most of the time, though I do occasionally make a sojourn back into the womb as well.

I feel that working digitally allows me to spend that explorative time with the camera instead of with the print. I guess I am in opposition to Ansel Adams’ assertion that the negative is the score and the print is the symphony. I see the symphony in the inital creation of the image.

Now, that being said, I use all this expensive equipment to shoot and print and then use another expensive piece of software to make it look less polished. : ) Maybe that’s where the serendipity comes from for me. I use a film emulator and sometimes “burn” in the edges to simulate an almost holga-like image. This “style” that I am using for my current project came about almost by accident as I was exploring different types of film emulators, and accidentally setting a layer mode wrong. But, for me, the serendipity usually happens in working with different subjects and compositions, finding different symbolism and connections within a body of work and then readdressing those ideas.

I personally think that both ways of working have their advantages and disadvantages and I love the fact that so many people work in so many different ways. It keeps things interesting and keeps an important dialogue happening. But, in order for that dialogue to be productive, I think it’s important to accept the other perspective. It may not be what works for you, but it doesn’t make it any less valid. Whatever method bears forth the work that challenges us or inspires us, in both our own work and that of others.

-Roderick

And serendipity is a big part of that magic and isn’t available in digital imaging. I’ve often joked about “making it perfect,” about the tendency for people, working digitally, to adjust and tweak every little detail and setting to bejesus and back (I’ve done this myself, even) and that’s just not something you can do in the darkroom.

Oh, and I love how you turned that CD rack into a rack for you plates!

how you do control the water temp in there?