Alternative Processing

Today was a special day indeed, listen in...

I've not done a great measure of grumbling over the last while, but it would only be to spite how hard the last few months have been. This semester of photography school: hells bells. The plate has been full for everyone. And no amount of all night labouring can scratch the scales, the work keeps coming. It has been fast paced and massively technology driven, streamlining our image capture resources, which is why 

-cue circus music (and jugglers)-

we've had to get back in the darkroom.

Our module seeks to turn our deft, keystroke fingers to the craft of alternative image making. I feel a bit "Ta-Daa" about it all, its so out of place with the pace of the year. It involved no less than 8 hours standing in the same place, swilling chemical compounds, mincing pigments and teasing out a trace of an image from our sodden papers through our tear welled eyes. If this post was a DVD it would have a huge out-takes section with us slipping on each others prints and falling head first into the wet sinks (that circus music again) Today was a great day for that old familiar feeling of patience.

Alternative processing is a   s  l  o  w  process, it is designed with pain in mind. But when there's nothing on the cards but patience odd, fun things start to happen. You stop rushing about, music come on, someone opens a bag of bombay mix, you stick meticulously to one print for an hour getting it perfect - its all your favourite things all of a sudden. And i have 3 prints to show. 3 fabulously flawed creatures. Like 3 children of my own, and just like the dream child, one of them is a t-shirt.

Choo Choo, the cyanotrain.