A busy weekend.

[gregmeister_admin]

Well, I finally bit the proverbial bullet and cleaned out my old hard copy photography file cabinet. Within its depths I had over 40 years of Negatives, Proofs, Chromes, Contact Sheets, and order forms. It was time.

My wife and I have been doing a version of "Death Cleaning" and it was now my turn to open up a file cabinet and get down to the business of not keeping everything I ever shot ever. It was initially a trip down memory lane, but it became a lightly traumatic and difficult process of letting go. Letting go of memories, letting go of the physical items that will in reality never be used again and would only be left to my children to dispose of.

Within the cabinet I found the very first 4X5 chrome I ever created using studio lighting 40 years ago. Uggh, I worked so hard for that image and yet it was so simple and not really all that much to look at.

I let it go.

I found negatives and chromes from almost all of my early training and exploration into photography and lighting. Processing and printing all of these images was a VERY labor-intensive process, and I could not help but look at the work and time infused into the materials I held in my hands. I was stunned at how much more work was put into imaging and creation and how much simpler it is to shoot and process images without darkrooms, chemistry, and huge amounts of time sitting in a small chemically infused room watching a timer and hoping the temperature was constant, and that the chemistry was fresh enough, hoping the agitation was sufficient to build the contrast into the negative or the chrome, and the wash was efficient enough to remove the chemistry and make the film stable. Uggh, just writing that run on sentence was hard and labor intensive.

It was all a labor of love, and it allowed me to hone my craft and focus on what makes a good image. There was no "fix it in post" mentality you either had it in the image or you did not. As simple as that and as complex as everything I listed before. I'll keep the memories and the skills, but the physical materials had to go. I have scanned or rephotographed all of the work I want to move forward into digital and that includes all the family photos and personal images I could not yet let go of.

The physical shredding of the materials is complete the processing of the actions and the results (7 bags of shredded negatives, chromes, and paperwork) reminds me that what I have done is consequential and merits a reflection time. Part of that is this note to the world.

Good riddance. Farewell.

Here's to new and freshly annoyed electrons and pixels.
Greg

[Ganna]

If somebody understand this 100%, it's me