I remember that on my 12th birthday my parents gave me a very nice Fuji point and shoot camera (with films… hey it was in 1986). I started taking a lot of photos. More or less at the same time I learned that my father had just sold his black and white photo lab he had not used in years. At the time I was mad at him as I did not even know he had one. I was falling in love with photography. However, at school, at the same time, I discovered black and white lab. I remember processing films and developing photos but I have no memory that someone taught me how to do so. Later I started to borrow my father’s Nikon F70 and just loved to take photos. Then I stopped….
When I finally got a decently paid job in a beautiful far away country (Tanzania), I went back to photography and finally bought a digital SLR. Then I upgraded to a better one. Tanzania is an amazing country and there was no better place to make me fall again in love with photography. But maybe I should add that I also felt in love with a photographer.
I had to catch up with many years when I did not practice photography. With digital cameras, one can be tempted to use some automatic settings. So I bought old cameras. I bought three old zorki cameras (hey I am a woman, I like to shop!) from the 50s but built according to 30-40s technology. I also have a Polaroid 600SE (not an automatic camera). Then a medium format Mamiya C220. I even bought a Kodak brownie box from the 20s. My latest one is a view camera (this one is still travelling to Tanzania and i am crossing my fingers it shows up to Arusha). They all work and I use them. And I learned a lot about technique. It is the best school for me and it helped me to understand better and faster my SLR digital camera.
Then when my boyfriend finally decided to organize his 1st exhibition, we had to make the digital prints of his work on our professional photo printer. And I was the one, the technology geek, who worked to make sure the prints were accurately representing the photos, especially the colors, of the image we were seeing on the screen.
What I was working hard to achieve was the work a lab technician, un tireur as we would say in French, would do. I love that work. I love working on a photo in order to obtain the best print. Though thinking about it, I am not sure I would love the traditional dark room work anymore. I like the digital one, for its flexibility, for the fact that I can interrupt myself and resume my work at any time, for the fact that I am not dependant on electricity (in Tanzania you have many power cuts – we have been having a lot of them lately because of the drought) or that I am not wasting water.
Now I am a great digital dark room technician and I love it. I like working hours to get the best photo on the screen and on beautiful fine art paper. Choosing the right paper is exciting. Getting the right print before an exhibition is challenging. It is also scary in a way. I love this feeling and the satisfaction when I have the right mix of everything to get THE right print. Well, good thing I love it because it is my turn to exhibit. More on this soon.
I like being an artist. I was trained to be a lawyer. I love my job but being an artist gives me the opportunity to be appreciated not for what I learned and how i use it, but for who I am because in all my photos there is a part of me.
