In 2018 my Dad gave me a plethora of books about Edward Weston for Christmas, including his Daybooks, which I started reading at the time but had to set aside because it wasn’t practical for me to focus on anything besides unpleasant Life Stuff. Fast forward to this past December, when I picked them up again - they’re so inspiring to me that I can barely read more than a few pages at a time without wanting to throw my entire being into photography. That whole hog 24/7 thing doesn’t work when you already have a full time job, namely Motherhood, that deserves to be put first. Priorities! Balance! But I do have a business now, and I’ve been thinking a lot about what on earth I’m going to do with it. So far, it’s pretty much dead in the water (Real Truths) and part of that is probably because I am not marketing correctly and doing a ton of other things wrong. Either that, or it’s just not meant to be and I’m not willing to accept that fact yet.
While I’ve been looking in to networking, attending meetings, submitting to shows, working on lighting and backdrops and internet searches for freelance positions and being Mom, I’ve been thinking about what direction I want to go. What do I WANT to do with photography? In my heart of hearts, I’m pretty sure I already know. One of them is printing, and LOTS of printing is a goal of mine for this year (in addition to doubling the number of clients from last year - that means I only need 6, so I’m telling myself that should be doable). I have a new darkroom shirt, thanks to my awesome FSC friend who opened up Obscura Darkroom . I’ve been printing, and washing said shirt, weekly. . . .
Thanks to a lot of hard work, mostly by my excellent other half, my darkroom is really awesome now. No walls yet, but it’s a little bit of heaven for me anyhow. Better light means I don’t have to run inside to see the test strips properly, and a super fantastic dry side table (instead of speakers and a mini fridge) means I actually have room to work.
Anyhow what I’ve been printing is the negatives from last summer, both enlargements and contact prints. My hope is that I can print the entire series and - gulp - try to do something with it. Here are crummy cell phone shots of the prints, untrimmed, not yet flattened, and not yet culled. Actually, they look terrible compared to how they look in person - but I guess you’ll have to come and see that for yourself someday heh.
In other news, 2019’s Christmas gift from Dad was a camera I had long pined for - you’ll get to hear about that properly when I finish up the article I’m writing for the FSC. Earlier this month, I was gifted the Motherload of Accessories for it by another kind FSC friend; it arrived in a box that’s almost as awesome as the contents. So I’ve been having a lot of fun making larger medium format negatives, and I am astounded how terrific the lenses are - I’m going to use this camera a lot!
In addition to darkrooming, mom’ing, and a couple of freelance shoots, I am also showing a collection of my cyanotypes with 3 other super talented artists as part of Print Austin, thanks to the kindness of Wilco Creatives and my own dear City of Round Rock. This is the fist time Round Rock has participated in Print Austin, so I am beyond thrilled to be participating in it! The opening reception is Friday Feb 1st (read all about it by visiting either of the organizations linked above); please stop by and see the show if you can. I’ll be there in spirit. . . . .
More news to come! Happy almost weekend everybody - hope you have a day filled with good light.