I Want To Talk About Photography

Celebrating 50 Years With A Camera In My Hands

“Curated Bamboo” — Image by Author

Fifty years ago, I was introduced to Edward Weston’s Daybooks. This is a two volume set of his daily morning writing. Several pages into the first volume, I was hooked. Both on Weston, and life as a photographer. I was 22 years old.

I was living with a couple of friends who were taking photo classes at one of the community colleges in Phoenix. I was attending another community college, studying ceramics and sculpture. I was as hooked on these two subjects, as much as they were on photography. I had never given much thought to photography.

Not long after this, they set up a makeshift darkroom in a bedroom closet. It was here that I was introduced to the magic of this medium. I was quickly enthralled on what was possible in the dark. Weston’s books gave me the final push.

“Come Sit In The Shadows” — Image by Author

My friends loaned me an old Sears 35mm camera to play with. And play I did. Soon I was out with them on Saturday mornings, photographing in the seedy industrial areas of Phoenix.

Not long after, I was developing my own film, and learned the rudiments of printing in the closet…