Dear Darkroom Diary,
We were in Leipzig this weekend – well, more like Wachau, at the old church ruin – and we made wet plates. I had your little sister with me, the small red darkroom tent for outdoors. That’s why I’m writing to you. I missed you. Well. Not really. The tent is great, the weather was lovely, and there was no wind. So why do I feel like having a moan in my diary? It wasn’t the wet plates – everything worked so well that I’m actually really proud of the work.
Saturday was great. We had a wet plate photo session with Franziska, who came last year too. The ruin was empty, no event going on, so we could really go wild with our creativity. After she left, we just kept taking photos of little beautiful corners of the ruin. Really lovely. I’m quite proud.
But then came Sunday. What can I say? Good thing you were at home, dreaming away to yourself. There was so much work setting up, and an unbelievable number of people. Some didn’t respect our boundaries, and I got more and more annoyed as the day went on. And: we only had one customer – and she came more out of pity than genuine interest. (Thankfully a friend also showed up – and we wanted to shoot her anyway.)
The fact that we lost money on it doesn’t bother me that much. We had a brilliant time with Anne, who looked after us so kindly again, and I had stomach ache from laughing.
No, the frustration was this: I think we’ve got this now. We’ve mastered the game. And no one is looking. The frustration really comes out when I think that strangers should be seeing this. When we’re at gatherings or places where people know what we do – it’s always amazing. But at the WGT, we’ve got no place.
So next year we might go again – but without announcing it. We’ll take photos for registrations the day before the concert, or whatever we fancy. Or just go to WGT itself – we’ve never actually been. Or just visit Anne before or after, without the darkroom. We’ll see what happens. But after three years of taking photos there – it’s not getting any better, and we’ve only found one person who keeps coming back (Franzi is gold <3).
We need to find a place for wet plates where we belong.
Either way – events on the road are cancelled for now. And I’ll spend more time with you.
some plates:
mobile:
