I received a comment on my blog recently that stated simply, and in its entirety, “You’re a digital hating hipster.” Well, I wasn’t even hip when I was the right age for it, but, more to the point, I don’t hate digital. I choose not to use it. As I’ve stated in previous posts, art is as much about the medium as it is about the product. What we do is informed by how we do it. I choose film because of the lack of instant gratification, and the meticulous process of large format photography; what I refer to as “the slow zen of quality.” I have spent so much of my life hurrying about, trying to get everything done from work to home to fitness, and back again. I do so much in my line of work that revolves around computers and high-tech gadgetry. When I get to take pictures, or work in the darkroom, I get that rarest of opportunities, which is to take a breath, and let the world pass around me for just a little while. I get to live briefly in the world as it was when Ansel Adams climbed the Sierras, and developed his film under the stars. It doesn’t take hating digital to want that. It takes loving film.

The exchange went back and forth for a while, and eventually I must have convinced him of the fact that I’m much too old to be a hipster. I had long hair since the 70’s (except for my time in the military), and grew a beard around 2003. I grew up in flannel shirt central: Pennsylvania when Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan were Presidents, and even wore them unbuttoned with a tee shirt underneath (I don’t think I would do that today).

The truth is: I like film. I like the darkroom. I like the thrill of victory when a negative looks absolutely awesome, and I even like the agony of defeat when one doesn’t. It’s all part of the chase.

Technical Data:

Mossy Morning on the Zigzag
Camera: Hasselblad 500 CM
Lens: 80mm Carl Zeiss
Film: Fuji Velvia

Off Walker Farm Road, Mosier, Oregon, September 2011
Camera: Sinar Alpina 4×5
Lens: 150mm Fujinon with a green filter.
Film: Ilford FP4+ Developed in 510-Pyro.

Breitenbush Hot Springs Powerhouse, March 2007
Camera: Hasselblad 500 CM,
Lens: 80mm Carl Zeiss,
Film: Maco (Efke) ORT 25 developed in Clayton F76+