"As 2007 began, I had five binders full of negatives in a drawer. Around 15,000 frames, and among them some very good pictures. Every time I went to the darkroom, those unprinted images weighed me down. I will never be able to print them all. So I bought a new binder, and told myself that this year I will work hard, and I will work in the present."
-"About" page of DarkTopography.com
I've been photographing seriously for ten years. To celebrate, I scrimped and saved and bought a film scanner. It was no small expense, but even if I never shoot film again, most of my life is documented in a towering stack of negatives, and it's worth preserving. So here's a project, and a promise:
Every day of 2009, I will post a film scan. A Scan-A-Day, to prove there's a treasure worth digging for in those hieroglyphics, complete with dust and scratches and all the other reasons the world has moved on. I started DarkTopography.com to work in the present, to keep my eyes on the road. After almost two years, it's time to examine the past.
And the past is not far removed. It's just that no one else can see it.
So the project will be raw, retrospective, and it will focus on the foundations, where the truth is laid bare. And like everything else here, it will be topographic: The abandoned dam, the burned-out trestle, the darkroom, the woods at night. Places I captured on film, when film was all there was.
The topography has changed since I started this site, and it's easy to find yourself adrift when the landscape shifts in the darkness. So, for 2009: Eyes on the horizon, hands in the soil, clutching the roots.
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3 comments:
Pretty cool! Thanks for letting me know about my grade! Thanks for having an awesome class. It has been my most fave college class to date. I can't wait to see your scan-a-day, and I plan on doing a pic-a-day in 2009! Keep in touch.
I really like the format and idea of this site. It reads like a novel as I go page by page through your wanderings and ramblings with reoccuring characters and themes transformed by the passage of time.
Roger
awesome plan! and ambitious indeed. i look forward to the snipets as a viewer.
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