Eye-Opener: Memo

If sharing is vain, then I'm very vain...

Weeks -no months of planning has finally paid off, today I had my black and white photography exhibit opening reception in Reeves Library Lounge, my show will be there from now until Friday, October 14...I had a great experience learning about photography that I wanted to show others and talk about black and white photography and just maybe spark interest in them, to try it out... so they too could enjoy the art...

I wasn't really thinking of displaying my works until my last day of photography (July 1, 2005)...

I just fell in love with black and white photography- everything about it, the work it took, the developing process, manipulating the image through various exposure,times and filters etc.-- B/W photography is truly an art form, your medium is a camera rather than a pencil/charcoal/oils etc.

and I was walking out of my classroom, saying goodbye to some of the most unique people I've met, I knew I was going to miss my photographic routine --

--yes, during this seven week course under the tutelage of Jon Speilberg (cousin of Steven Speilberg),it was tough. I had to work my ass off, but it was kewl, I enjoyed it, i enjoyed the "toxic" fumes of all the chemicals, :the developer, the stop bath, the fixer, and the fixer remover...and I loved how these chemicals left a dry residue on my hands ...and how I itched at night because I'm allergic to any type of metallic abrasion (contact to skin)...

at one point in the beginning of the summer session (before I realized what was happening to me because of my allergy) I had both my legs and arms filled with hives because I scratched them and scratching made the hives spread. My legs and arms looked like one of those globes that had the mountain ranges-- it was so freaky

and the dark room was an eternal abyss, just try to imagine pitch black, opening a canister of film, cutting the edge, then loading the film into the reels, it feels like eternity just spinning those reels and what a relief to have it loaded, sealing it light tight

developing...had to make sure that the water temperature is between 68 to 75 degrees (recommended)..."agitating" the film, 7, 5, 7, 30 seconds, (it really depends on the temperature and the type of film...air dry cabinet (makes drying faster)

the other dark room, inside orangish safe light, enlargers, filters, glass, adjuster...

but oh wow the magic, 2 minutes in the developer, 1 minute in the stop bath, 5 minutes in the fixer (gradual agitation), 1 minute in the water, and 2 minutes in the fixer remover (gradual agitation), wearing gloves, using thongs, agitating...if you were to expose your latent image with an aperture of 2, say goodbye to your image, because as soon as it gets in the developer, the image quickly shows up and pretty soon the image is overexposed and it turns completely black (you say to yourself, damn it another dollar down the drain (literally) because photographic paper is expensive ($75 per one hundred sheets))

final wash-- paper swimming in water, rotating like a washing machine but gentler and drying could be disastrous, the image has to be face down on the conveyor belt or else risk damage to your final product...then there's the presentation - dry mounting on precut 11 X 14 super duper high bright WHITE museum board

these were my photo routine, during the final wash, I'd eat my lunch... I thought about photography and my show while I was being inducted to citizenship, on the back of my pamphlet "A Welcome to U.S.A Citizenship" where the notes area, I jot down some ideas for my show --- the people I'd invited, where the pictures would go (i knew it was going to be held in Reeves Library, i knew the layout perfectly), the theme, their commonality:Philadelphia, then i thought about the food, "Philly Cheesesteak" and fruits, drinks ...

then i thought about how i was going to advertise for this, I had a press release to the communicator, and the Setonian, the Setonian also had an exclusive on my thoughts about my experience... i did some strategic flyer hanging (admin, lowe, maura, lynch, harlan, reeves and bailey), and then I did word of mouth/personal invitation (that didn't work as well as i thought), I even mentioned food, FOOOD!

Today was my show...I used half my flex for food, (i have tons of left-overs, the cheesesteak guy was 20 minutes late)

Posted by Michael Diezmos at September 23, 2005 7:10 PM