Photography memorial time.  

I made a decision last week.  It’s been 3 and a half years since I tore down my darkroom in order to sell my Portland house, so that we could move to Hood River.  The current house has no suitable space for a new darkroom that won’t require expensive plumbing work and constant climate control.  More importantly, you can’t put a wet darkroom in a carpeted house.  We haven’t considered the place a permanent residence, so vivisecting the garage floor to install plumbing didn’t seem like a good option.

We also have no room for a studio.

With these things in mind, it was with a heavy heart that I packed my studio cameras off to Blue Moon Camera & Machine to put them up for sale.  They were venerable beasts: large format film cameras with unique optics.  There was an Ansco whole plate camera from the 1920’s, a 1940’s Burke and James Rembrandt 5×7 portrait camera, my 12” Kodak Aero-Ektar, a 4×5 Speed Graphic with various lenses, a Calumet 4×5 monorail camera, a Zeca 9x12cm folding camera from 1933, and a modern 420mm Nikkor lens.  More will likely go up for sale.

Even though we’re planning to move back into the Portland area next year, it seemed pointless to pay to store them elsewhere while we show the house to buyers.  Life is change.  I kept the ones that aren’t replaceable. Gaia’s illness has not eased outside of Portland’s pollution like we hoped, so part of the reason was to lighten the load. I will be doing all of the packing and moving. More things other than cameras will exit as well.

The Kodak Aero-Ektar

It felt like a dream had died.  Hope may remain, though.

Our next house will have a basement with running water, and a drain.  It will also have a large open space for studio work.  The phoenix may rise from the ashes, and I will find some awesome cameras to play with.

Fingers crossed.