I am very excited to be sharing something with you today, something that I have been waiting to do for quite some time. Very late on Mother's Day an unexpected and very generous gift was given. Unless we're talking cameras I don't often get excited about technology and even then the older the camera the more beautiful and the more promise I do believe. This little piece of technology, in the form of a simple scanner that scans not only 35mm film, but more excitedly, 120 film, has me thinking of darkrooms, black and white, medium format and dusting off my old Mamiya 645. I'm excited because for me this means once again shooting in film, my true love, and being able to print without a darkroom. I still have all my darkroom gear and in a twisted kind of way the thought of smelling those darkroom chemicals again gets me going but the thought of handling these chemicals and disposing of them responsibly outside an art school style setup is enough to put me off.
Today I headed down to the studio to open a couple of old suitcases that have been untouched for the past eight years. They are full to the brim of negatives. Some I have seen in the form of proof sheets or prints but others were simply developed then filed away. I'm not sure what I will find inside these suitcases that hold so many memories....smiles I think are guaranteed, tears maybe, nostalgia I'm sure. With so many negatives to sort through I thought I'd simply start at the top and slowly work my way down. Come take a look with me.
All these images are were taken in my early twenties when Miss Kaya dog was a pup and we lived in an old farm house right on the river. Hot in Summer, freezing in Winter with our very own red belly who lived under the house. She would come out to sun herself on the back porch and disappear into a small hole under the backdoor. It was here we had some great parties, one hundred acres of space, a house sheep called Lucy, our very own stretch of the river and a wide inky night sky jam packed with stars.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend
Cxo
