Letting go of “back in the day”…

…  when every single subject was photographed with Polaroid proofs, 3 – 4×5 (or 5×7, or 8×10) Ektachrome brackets, 2 – color negatives and proof prints, 2 – black and white negatives and proof prints, and 3 – 35 mm Kodachrome brackets for slide show use; all neatly filed near the light box.

(click images for larger view)

Emptying those three ring binders and file drawers of their thousands of transparencies, negatives and prints into box after box of trash proved to be quite the contemplative process. 40 years of memories both pleasant and unpleasant flowed like time itself. The majority of the trash came from the least personal yet most profitable projects — obsolete product photographs. The most difficult commercial work to trash were the “concepts” involving drawings, special effects, model building, and hand retouching — commercial — though bordering on actual art made with craft, fine materials and hand work. The personal work and the projects with bit heart could not be trashed — not yet.

One of the two shooting rooms looks dismal without the Cambo camera stand, lights and backgrounds.

Flat files full of hand made art, hand set or inked typography and logos, fine papers, pens, brushes, air brushes, paints and retouching dyes — also obsolete — yet loved for the “feel” they still carry.

Stuck behind the flat file drawers and found when the drawers were removed for moving the oak.

What’s next?

As I walked out of the Studio/Offices I’ve rented for 25 years for almost the last time — the light was gorgeous.

Leica M8 snap shots — during the month long process of changing the location of “stuff.”