Print in Hand

Above: Prints I'm enjoying on the deck tonight - film and summer (and cold beer for that matter) are so refreshing.

I take my film to a small photo lab near my house and each time I'm there I'm reminded of the first photography job I had during high school as a photo assistant for a photographer named Bruce. One of my responsibilities was to print and cut all of his images by hand: I worked in a small, dark closet that housed a cumbersome photo enlarger and a stool barely big enough for me to sit on. After I adjusted color dials and rotated the negatives to get each and every print, I'd fumble with the enlarger in the dark to remove the large roll of exposed paper and place it in a light proof bag. Then, I'd walk down the hall with the bag to another room that contained a machine that developed the paper. I can't remember what this machine looked like because there were no safe lights and it too had to be operated in complete darkness. I do remember, however, that a part of the paper feeder was broken and I needed to reach my hand inside the machine and guide the paper through the developer in order for it to work properly. Once the roll of paper was developed and dried, I trimmed each print with a rotary cutter finally round off the corners with a small, specialized cutter. 

I do not miss that job in the least, but I do miss the weight of crisp prints in my hand. I'd almost forgotten how nice they can look!