On Sunday morning Gordon Harkins and I shared our 3 Prints Project work at Saint’s Café. I arrived with contact sheets from two new rolls of film and three gelatin silver prints. Gordon surprised me with 24 small prints of the work he plans to include in the Blurb book we’re working on that portraits the first year of work. His photographs are quiet, complex reflections of how he sees the world. In my opinion.

My first print this week was made during a walk with my dog. As she approaches her 16th birthday the image has an uneasy feeling for me.

The photograph of the house was made in Lewistown, Pennsylvania as I waited for my youngest daughter at the train station. A woman emerged from the house with baleful looks for the camera and me. In character I sheepishly put the camera down and missed the best shot.

Kim was paging through books at Barnes and Noble. I still enjoy photographing her but I have lost speed in responding to subjects. I have trouble tripping the shutter fast enough.  Often by the time I am ready the moments have passed.

Despite not writing a word about this since April 2008 the project has continued. This evening I was processing film in the darkroom. Back in November photography ground to a halt as my friend Gordon and I began to edit our images and put together a Blurb book. For me that’s a difficult process and one I go to great lengths to avoid. I’m finally wrapping up work on the 24 or so images that will appear in the book reflecting my experience with the project.

It’s good to be back in the darkroom processing film. This evening it was two rolls of 35mm Ilford HP5 processed in ZonalPro film developer. A heady affair with a new Nikon D700 digital SLR camera keep my Leica M6 in the camera bag for a long time but now we’re back together, the Leica my primary creative sketching tool. The D700 is an amazing tool and can do things I did not think possible. But after the glow of newness faded I found it cold, empty, and without the magic I feel shooting, processing film and making prints in a darkroom.

Darkrooms are cozy places and maybe sometime I’ll try and make a picture that depicts that feeling. But even with the lights on a see a lot of comforting things around. And once the lights go down, the sound of water running, and some soft music, well, it is a great place to work.