Scanning 8x10 Negs

Scanning 8x10 negs is long tedious process, it is one of those things you have to do but do not want to do. Finishing the scans will allow me to make submissions to galleries. I have been in contact with wonderful gallery in Canada that seems interested in my white background sex worker photographs. I need to make a submission of all available work for their consideration. If they they like what I send them and like the 20x24 prints I will send as samples then I will get my first one man show! This same gallery is planning on having a book competition I will enter these scans in that competition as well.

I will try over my coming week off to make up a mobile scanning setup, this will allow me to scan negatives during my regular night work shift when I have some free time. I want to spend my regular week off devoted to new photographic pursuits, not by doing old negative scans. By using the portable scanning system I should be able to find extra hours to get the scanning completed.

Future Show Possibility

Next year I might have the chance to place some of my new work in a joint photo show with a local photographer. The show would be of work shot in Thailand during my coming trip in November of this year. I plan to start working on my "Khon Thai" series this next trip, which is very exciting. It would be strange to be making photographs that already have a place to hang, quite different than working with the hopes of a show somewhere.

The photographer I would be hanging my work with if this happens is very accomplished and skilled, the best photographer I have met in the city. I have to be on top of my game to make work that holds up next to his.

If this happens it should be exciting and fun, a nice start to the "Khon Thai" project that might take 10 plus years to complete.

Quote: Walker Evans

"Most people in our tradition are basically rather scared of feeling. You have to unpeel that before you can really get hot and get going and not be afraid of feeling."

Will Make Audio Recordings

In my past trips to Thai I would write down quotes and little diary notes. The idea was to make a record of what I was doing so that I could eventually use the information in some form of book. Today on Ebay I bought a portable DAT recorder, the hope is that I will be able to record conversations and and my personal thoughts in a more accurate way.

Last year when I sat with Long in her room and she told me about her life, I wished I had made a recording of it, now I can do that. I can make a audio (not video just yet) record of these important meetings. It will help me get accurate quotes for possible future books and I can also place some sound files online in this blog and my website.

It also just seems right to make a recording of what is said, what they say matters and should be remembered.

Xpan Panoramic Test Shots

Been doing some experimenting with a Hasselblad Xpan camera. I saw some of the documentary work of Michael Von Graffenrie when I was in Paris, his use of the panorama frame to do concerned photography was quite intriguing. He was able to tell a larger story per photograph because of the long horizontals of visual information the Xpan shoots. Often his photographs communicated a bigger picture than a standard 35mm frame can, a bonus with the Xpan is that you can shoot standard frames as well as panoramic. I am thinking of using this camera in conjunction with standard 35mm Leica rangefinders.