The retro gallery goes back to days of pan-x, plus-x and tri-x. Late nights became early mornings. Tongs, trays, chemicals, and magic baths. Practitioners spoke of developers, fixers, and hydro-wash. Ilford, Agfa, and Kodak were select printing papers. Fuji and Kodachrome cassettes were either mailed or developed in bathrooms. Overexposing, under-developing, reciprocity, ten zones, pre-visualization became language.
But retro is more than throw-back. Retro is comfort in knowing growth years are sprinkled with substance. Pathways explored form visual insights. Nobel Laureate Annie Erneaux confessed that writing was her drive “to fight forgetting.” An essential leg of photography’s tripodian strength reveals such a maxim. These images reveal humanity. Paul Simon opined this, ” Preserve your memories. They’re all that’s left you.”
Our moments, our memories. A mirror of are and were. Back then is still now.
Vaseline is the key ingredient underneath air mask to keep spray-paint from adhering to skin.
Smelter work is hot, dirty, and requires constant vigilance. Nicky, had 9 years in with the U.S. Reduction company in Gary.
Intense heat from the smelter furnaces break down the brick and mortar and must be torn out and replaced routinely.
Tobacco is looped and tied to a lath, then wilted in the filed before taking them to a curing barn.
The tight notches of the Appalachians are known as "hollers" and fiercely independent generations proudly occupy this land.
The distance from farm to market governed by overnight travel gives the term truck-farming its name and principle.
A playground baseball backstop provides the setting for this group portrait of kids and their playground.
It just takes tools, a back alley, and a rain cover. Oh--also the right can-do attitude.
Next door neighbors and their kids provide this wall laden portrait.