The retro gallery goes back to days of pan-x, plus-x and tri-x films. Those late nights became early mornings. Tongs, trays, and chemicals processed magic. Languages were developers, baths, fixers, and hydro-wash. Ilford, Agfa, and Kodak were among select printing papers. Fuji and Kodachrome cassettes were shipped off or developed in bathrooms. Overexposing, under-developing, reciprocity, zone system, pre-visualization became the lexicon.
But retro is more than through-back. Retro is comfort in knowing those growth years are sprinkled with substance. Pathways explored form lasting insights. Nobel Laureate Annie Erneaux confessed that writing was for her a drive “to fight forgetting.” An essential leg of photography’s tripodian strength is just 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. Sometimes then is still now.
