I BUILT A COMPLETE PHOTO DARKROOM IN A REMOTE MOUNTAIN CABIN

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

In short, if my experiments up here in the mountains have taught me anything, they've shown me just how rewarding photography can be without depending on highly developed technology. Now that I've freed myself from excessive and expensive equipment, I've found that taking pictures is a great deal more fun than it used to be.

I've also learned something about maintaining a better working relationship with nature than I'd ever have suspected possible if I had remained in town. Photo chemicals are routinely flushed down the drains of big-city darkrooms, for instance, to wind up who knows where? Out here, though, I know that I'm responsible for maintaining the purity of my drinking water so I carefully return all my photographic solutions to their original bottles and dispose of them at the approved county dump.

By the same token, I've become less leery of dirt the technician's bane and I've found ways to cope with whatever drifts into my darkroom. After all, living in the country means living with good, ole dirt and liking it!

Living in the "tall and uncut" also means making a certain adjustment in what you expect to earn from photography. For example, I exchanged the first family portrait I shot out here for a rabbit, SO pounds of potatoes, some canned beans, and a home cooked meal. I also have an ongoing agreement with a neighboring commune (I take pictures for it in exchange for firewood). The most cash money I've seen since I've been here has come from doing freelance assignments for the federal government's Job Corps and teaching photography courses for a local community college.

Yes, by city standards, my income has plunged since I left Chicago for the woods of southern Oregon. But, by my own standards, life is now a lot more pleasant and profitable. And that's what it's all about.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print