Monday, August 19, 2013

Today's Deliveries

Today I had a number of deliveries, first UPS dropped my big 8x10 camera box (extra brokerage charge of $46), this box may be to big for my needs. The thing is very well made and looks like you can throw it out of speeding truck without damaging what's inside but gosh its fricking huge! I might have to get a smaller box for my 8x10 Thai work and use this one for wet plate or if I end up getting a 11x14 or16x20 camera someday.

The second package today was a post office delivery of my 20 bulk film rolls of Tri-x ($24 charge), I quickly placed the box into my freezer alongside the film from the last shipment. I should have a 10 year or so supply of 35mm Tri-x, thats a very comforting feeling. Now it's time to make some important photos with all that stock material. This film should be a joy to shoot, I feel so lucky and privileged to have that opportunity.

I also got a small book of Nicholas Nixon portraits (large format film photographer) called "People With Aids", I will go through that carefully today. The book is half portraits half text (the stories behind the people in the photographs),  the text is written by Bebe Nixon and by the individual subjects of the books. To read the thoughts of the people in the portraits and then to see the finally detailed large format shots is a very powerful combination. This is a strong important book filled with love, compassion and understanding, I need to learn from the photographs and text, I hope it will help me tell my own stories better. I got "People With Aids" for a bargain online through abesbooks.com.

Tom Moran from "People With Aids",  Boston 1988 by Nicholas Nixon