The Ritual of the Art

Photo: 35mm - Silver Gelatin Print

Location: Elmwood Cemetery, Norfolk VA

Photographer: Sarah Thomas

35mm photography is cloaked in ritual. There is a strongly defined order and process to developing pictures from film that has beenestablished for a long time.

First, you must spend time in total darkness. The only things that exist are you and your film as you fumble around without your sight, trying not do drop everything whilst rolling your potential masterpieces from their canister onto a spool. Trust me, it gets easier with practice.

The next step requires sight and light. You place your film into a tank that is sealed against the light, as it is pretty important to see the chemicals that you are adding. Following that is a consistent mixing and shaking, but not vigorously! This continues for a bit, pausing to exchange one chemical for another and rinsing as you need.

When you are finished repeatedly up-ending what you hoped was a well-sealed film tank (but they never are), you wash the excess chemical rivulets from your arms and hands, give the film one last bath and hang it to dry. Now you finally have a negative to take to the light table and you can see how things turned out.

Then you must spend a few minutes bent over a very bright table with your negative, looking closely and inspecting density, exposure and composition before walking in to pitch dark print room. From here, you
spend time choosing the best exposure lengths and going through test strips of your negatives until you work out the kinks and are ready to print.

Finally! After all that work, I get to see my picture printed, and come back to life before my eyes.

It was such a strange turn, coming into the digital world from such a specific art. In the realm of digital photography, there is a great sense of instant gratification unseen since the days of Polaroid! I
can go from camera to paper and never have to get my hands dirty.

While in some ways, I feared that this change would diminish my love of photography, I found that almost the opposite was true. I had spent such a great deal of time at this point learning about the techniques
and numbers and all the mechanics of the art itself and that was applicable in both forms of photography. Digital photography allows me to notice a mistake instantly, adapt and solve those problems on site.
It cuts down on lost opportunities, and allows fast growth in new directions. So while the craft and ritual of 35mm photography will always hold a special place in my soul, I am definitely excited to see
the new heights that we will find through the flexibility of the new medium!

 

Photo: Queen Anne's Lace

Photographer: Sarah Thomas