With the help of Kendrick Kwok, I developed my first roll of film last night at the Stanford Photo Lab (in the basement of the art gallery). While I remember printing a photograph back in high school, I don’t recall ever having developed film. I found it to be both a laborious and exciting process! There’s something magical about the whole process, from removing the film from the cannister, pouring in all the chemicals, shaking, pouring out the chemicals, pouring in more chemicals, shaking, and… well, keep on repeating the process!
I can see how I would have spent hours in the photo lab, had I been a photographer as a student. It’s not necessasrily a regret, since I didn’t even care about photography back then, but it is something I wish I had known about. Ken was telling me that the photo lab used to be in the old Wilbur Modules. Okay, maybe I wouldn’t have spent hours in the photo lab as a student!
Along with Ken and myself, there were a number of people in the lab, including fellow Symbolic Systems’ student, Hilary Spencer! She was making a print on a t-shirt with some fancy liquid something or other (allows you to develop a print on a fabric). I didn’t see the final result, but it sounds pretty cool!
As for the photos, the first 10 look okay, but the rest have some weird streaking going on. Looks like my sprockets are leaking light or something on the film. I guess I’ll have to take or send my Leica in for service. When I’m near a scanner, I’ll scan some of the better prints and post them up. 3200 black and white photos have a look to them that digital just can’t compete with at the moment!
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