Tuesday, August 05, 2008

"Were all stars to disappear or die I should learn to look at an empty sky."

- W. H. Auden



I am fatigued. Though there has been so many wonderful things unfolding for me this Summer I am feeling in dire need of a lengthy vacation from it all. Last night I was in a darkroom from 7p-1am relearning the ropes of color printing. Though it felt good to involved in the production behind my photography again, it also felt entirely isolating, walking quietly from a private darkroom to the processor and back time and time again. Not sure how many still continue to print traditional C-prints while such wonderful scanners and output devices are at our fingertips.... but being in the pitch black for 6 hours without talking much takes being in the right frame of mind. Today I was thinking about it and was looking for an image of the enlarger I was slaving over all night... googled the word Omega color enlarger and was brought to this set of images which I found far more interesting and relevant as I've been thinking about vast spaces a lot lately while spending my free time in the dark. And after a while when you are looking through a grain focuser everything just sort of scatters and reassembles anyhow.

I'm heading back over for another long evening of printing tonight and again on Thursday, repeating that cycle for the month of August. If I fall off the radar in the meantime know I'm somewhere in the dark being productive. Perhaps my questions of vast spaces and voids will be answered there.

2 comments:

Jack Stadtlander said...

sounds like something i need to do. Where have you been printing?

Amy Elkins said...

I have been printing at the Camera Club of NY. It was long overdue.