My fixation for darkrooms isn't satisfied by just printing in them. Being under red light in an isolated room makes even the simplest surroundings photogenic. I found some glow in the dark gaffer tape which is sometimes used when printing in colour darkrooms where there is no 'safe' light. Not really something used in b/w process but I started playing with it nonetheless because of strange crossover luminance of this green glow under dim red safe light. The combination made it kind of look like it was lacquered with sugar; glossy and hard.

After listening to the Aught Fraught episode with Eileen Quinlan I felt really excited about mixing everything that I normally keep in neatly contained art / non art areas together into a slosh of assorted photo formats and materials that I am constantly engaging with throughout my life. I feel encased by photography in all aspects of my life. Not in an 'anxiety of images' kind of way but in the way that my day job / night job / artistic interests / closest relationships are all various strains of photography that I interface with. Even when it is not mediating as a tool it is the media holding my life together. 

These instant film photos were made in 2016 and I walked around with them for a couple of years like they were trading cards but for no good reason really. Then they ended up pasted in a photo album after I got tired of it. I'm trying not to edit text too much. This is a good hobby.

Last weekend Sidney Gordon and I travelled to Saturna Island to stay at the studio of Al Razutis with the aim of learning to make holograms. We came in a car full of chemistries, cameras, darkroom equipment, food and six 102L plastic tote bins. In Al's studio we put together a simple modular sand table comprised of the aforementioned plastic tote bins (acting as cells) filled twelve inches deep with washed sand. Al had most of the instruments required, they only needed to be hot glued to metal tubes.

 

The first night at 1am we went to Winter Cove to look for Aurora Borealis. It was a twenty minute walk through the woods to get to the point.  An army of frogs croaked the tune of this adventure. We weren't able to see the lights with our naked eyes. Although my camera seems to have captured something. This journey through the woods at night in search of strange perceptual phenomena set the tone for the remainder of our three day trip.