Ghost Train RadioSelf Portrait, 1987
In the 80’s, I lived in San Francisco and had a dark room. That was back in the day when there were no digital cameras or smart phones. It was old school photography and I loved it. Now, I’m so glad for digital and haven’t used film or printing on paper for decades, but I do consider myself very lucky to have been knee deep in “analog”.
I took many photography classes at CCSF and bought supplies at Adolph Gasser, SF Camera Supply and other Bay Area stores. They were institutions, but all gone now.
One of many of my “heroes” in photography was Man Ray – and he created “Rayographs” – or a print with objects placed on the paper and then just exposed with white light. I made a handful just as a school exercise, but amazingly – this one is prescient. I was divorced just over a decade after this Rayograph was made – and I suppose it was subliminal. There were few other “markers” back then, but when you are in your 20’s, you think you know it all.
Bringing me up to today – I have to laugh, because I realize what I don’t know – and how as a young “Mr. Smartypants” I was blind to these markers. Hindsight – hahahahaha.
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