Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/07/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Sorry, Alastair, I probably read your continuation, asking for further discussion, before I read your comments. I started in the darkroom when I was 13 at an army hobby-shop on Camp Drake, Japan. One of my father's friends took me along because he thought I'd be interested and I immediately became hooked. All through my teenage years I'd go in to the darkroom on Saturdays at around 8am and work until around 1 pm, when my friends started waking up after a Friday night. Taking pictures has just been a self-evident facet of my life since then. When I returned to the states I studied journalism, specializing in photojournalism, at Southern Illinois University. I studied under Bill Ward. He taught some good people (not implying I'm one of them). Sean Callahan was one of them. Sean got on at Life about a year before they put it down (bummer).. I take pictures almost constantly. If there are no people around, I take pictures of things. I prefer people. There is no rational reason for why I take pictures. I just do it. It's something of an obsession. I got real tired of spending hours in the darkroom. It simply takes too long to get anything done (for me). So I've gone over to digital printing and I've only glanced back about once (without doing anything about it). The only think I miss from the darkroom are contact prints. So I pay my kids to do that. I print with carbon pigment inks (A4 approx. 8x10) or with a RIP system for larger prints. I print a lot. I leave them all around the house and spread them to my subjects. I think I want to show what it's like to be a human, both from my perspective and from others'. I shoot with many cameras: digital, medium format, 35mm. I find myself becoming more and more of a minimalist. Minimalist in most aspects except production. I like my own photographs. I could consider wallpapering a room with them. They're personal for me. I've travelled a lot, I've lived a lot of places, there is nowhere I can call home, lookup some old buddies and shoot the shit. My "home" in Tokyo is beyond recognition now and no one stayed. My pictures are my little reminders. Daniel On 7/11/05, Alastair Firkin <firkin@ncable.net.au> wrote: > I've already made some comments, but here is a bit more: I began to > take images to prop up my poor memory: even as a child: not photos, no > memories ;-) When I moved to Melbourne at 13 I began to develop and > print in the darkroom -- all by trial and error, so there were lots of > errors ;-) At school, being the "cameraman" allowed me to get out of > doing sport -- can't do it and snap it ;-) Also meant I spent a lot of > time with the coaches and learnt a lot about sports: rowing etc. At > university it was just an ongoing "temptation" and then in the 80's I > began to "expand" my horizons. > > I am now trying to build a "body of work" to burn when I die most > likely ;-) I print in the darkroom mainly on RC paper, but also do > Cibachrome and colour negs: after my last few trips, I discovered that > I could not keep up with all the printing, so I've decided to spend > most of my time on b/w. After I've finished FOM2, I will be starting > another exciting (for me ) project. More of that a lot later. > > Mostly I print 10 x 8. But for the walls, I have settled on 12 x 16. > > I need more time, but I have to fly, its getting late. > > Cheers > On 11/07/2005, at 9:22 PM, Daniel Ridings wrote: > > > You first! :-) > > > > Daniel > > > > On 7/11/05, Alastair Firkin <firkin@ncable.net.au> wrote: > >> I am hoping to stimulate a bit more discussion on this topic: why do > >> you take the images, what do you do with them, how big do you print, > >> how do you print, why do you print etc > >> > >> Cheers > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Leica Users Group. > > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > > > Alastair > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >