Sunday, February 15, 2009

I've spent the last 3 hours...

... getting back into this blog thing! So, the main concept, purpose and/or theme for even creating a blog was for my photography/artistic interests and tendencies. I'm not usually very good at consistency. But, for temporary consistency's sake, just thought I'd announce that I am starting a new photo series/project. On film.



It's been a while since I've had a photo project. The last one I assigned myself was a pretty simple one: a daily Polaroid diary/journal. It was to begin the day of my birthday, March 3rd. Sort of the countdown to the next birthday. My intention was to capture 365 days/moments of my life, in diary fashion. This is more of a "me" project, this one's mainly for me.


So the Polaroid journal went well, basically all I had to do was take a daily Polaroid of the "right moment" of that day, paste it in a notebook (which, about 30 polaroids in, realized it was NOT the journal style I should have used, it's fat and protruding disgustingly now)  and write a little something about it. Obviously this was a very personal project.

The thing is, it only goes well when you have some form of income to spend on the highly priced Polaroid film.
I did up until September. Then the layoff. Then the sleeping in. Then, the sweet&spicy tea addiction. Then the realization that I was down to my last box of film. Then, the realization that I was.. broke. Couldn't justify the purchase. Couldn't purchase the purchase.
So, I stopped around Oct. But I decided to tweak the rules and continued to take photos, only this time they were on my camera phone or my regular digital camera. Now, the deadline/bday is rapidly approaching and I realize I need to get those prints printed. Which takes me back to the appreciation of film, a love never lost.

Digital has it's benefits, it's convenience.. but film, YES. I love the surprise, the anticipation as well as the cruel possibility that you totally fucked up a perfectly amazing photo op. I love the process of rolling the film into the camera, the sound of the shutter (rrwrrrr-click!) of the old Pentax K1000, the process of rewinding the film and taking it out of the camera, the process of either putting the used up film back into the container or throwing it in your purse which is what I tend to lean towards, taking the film to get processed and filling out the form which for some strange reasons brings me joy... to fill out my own name and the date, check the boxes and etc., and then there's the actual physical darkroom process, which dammit, I totally miss and would love to sneak into Bill Hendrick's classroom and play with chemicals.

Have I digressed? Probably.
What I'm trying to say is this: I'm starting a new photo project. It's going to be fun!

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