Pulling An All Nighter

The last 2 nights in the darkroom my first days off work after a week of 12 hour security shifts, went poorly. I seem to struggle on my first days off to get anything of substance accomplished. I usually can develop film effectively (mindless work) but when I have to think and make prints I struggle. Tonight thou things seem to be going better, maybe I am more rested and focused now.

I was unsure if I would include my 4x5 head and upper body shots in the show but I think I will do that now. I am working on a print of a young boxer with his eyes closed, a tight head shot with a very shallow depth of field. I find I like the solemnity of the expression. I remember Jock Sturges advising me to sometimes shoot people with their eyes closed, how it gives a insight to the soul (paraphrasing). I think that's very true, the closed eye boxer portrait is effective, I also have a open eye version but I think I will use the closed eye photo in the show.

I also plan on printing several more heads or 1/2 bodies. I will do other boxers, slum children and also a lady who worked at the slum market. A show with a combination of these 4x5 portraits along with the 35mm more documentary style photographs should work well together.

When I go to work on the garbage dump family portraits next year, I plan on using these same 2 formats, they are very different but both have wonderful strengths to them if your doing things right.

Well going to have a quick meal of pork chops then back in to the dark to continue with the heads. Its been a good night so far.