What Seven Years of Printing Taught Me
· 2 min read
A friend once described portraits as quiet work, and the phrase stuck. Film forces a pause between seeing and pressing the shutter. I like film stock that shows the marks of how it was made.
Small things
I print modest first, then decide what deserves to be larger. For a long time I treated film stock as an afterthought. Overcast days are underrated; the light wraps around all of it. You can get unexpectedly far with a light meter and some a steady hand. You can get unexpectedly far with a loupe and some a steady hand.
The best frame on the sheet was the one I almost did not take. Good light is mostly a series of modest, unglamorous decisions. You can get unexpectedly far with a medium format camera and some a steady hand.
The setup
Looking back, the patient approach was the right call. Scanning is tedious, but it is where the series takes shape. A light meter is a good teacher if you let it disagree with you. Some of this will be self-evident; some of it took me years.
There is no single right way to approach scanning negatives, but some ways are kinder than others. Every autumn I revisit the same questions about the darkroom. The first eight weeks were mostly about unlearning.
It took me six attempts to see the pattern.
What I would do differently
Looking back, the unposed approach was the right call. The small things matter less than the routine of paying attention. I shot most of this series on a single roll, half of it in fading light.
portraits