1997 My First Year of Photography in Review

35mm film

The first roll of film which I put through a camera of my own (an Olympus OM10) was begun on Christmas Day, 1986. It started with a photo of the sunrise over the Northwest Arm, and ended sometime later with a photo of the lights across the arm at night. Given that it was my first roll, I was mighty pleased with myself that I had made such pretty photos. I even got a 8"x10" enlargement of the ice photo for my wall. I used the camera on full automatic for the first couple of months, until I managed to wade through the "Life Library of Photography" books I received with the camera, and started to understand how to really use the camera.

6x6 cm film

My first creative use of a camera was as a tool in the creation of my portfolio for entrance to the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (Nova Scotia College of Art and Design). One of the requirements for the portfolio was to depict change in a series of images. I showed change in the weather, a change of mind and other such puns. The final images were printed 8"x10" (extravagantly large I thought at the time) and glued down on black board. The series must have worked as I did manage to get into the college, though to be honest, photography was not my intent at this time - I wanted to go to college to learn how to sculpt in stone.

35mm film

When I received my first camera, I also received a number of rolls of black and white film. These I carefully nursed along over the next months, and had processed at a photo-lab, for fear of ruining the film. I did print the images myself, setting up a crude darkroom in the closet of the art room in my high school. By the time I finished the twelfth grade six months later, I was comfortable making basic prints, and with processing film, though I had to ask a friend to load my reels, again for fear of messing my film up.

35mm film

Over the summer of 1987, I joined the Nova Scotia Photo Co-op, and used their facilities to continue my explorations of photography. Much of what I did was guided by the "Life Library of Photography" and to give those authors credit, much of what I do today is founded on those very basic tenets which I took from those books.

35mm film

Over my first summer with a camera I did lots of playing - experimenting with long exposures, studio lighting, and special effects filters. It didn't take me too long before I knew I didn't like the filters - the star filter especially - one ruined photo was enough to convince me to leave the things in a drawer (I still have the star-filter one kicking around somewhere). I had fun though, and slowly learned my way around my camera, and a basic darkroom set-up.

35mm film

In the fall of 1987, I began attending Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. The first term was a foundation session - with introductions to all areas, and a basic photo course. The entire term was a struggle for me; being young and arrogant, I thought I knew all there was to know, and even when something new was revealed, I was resistant to it. I printed high-contrast, overdeveloped my film, and generally did everything the way I wasn't supposed to. Reflecting now, I don't think I could have done it any differently - at the time contrast and grain were the things I wanted, and I resented being asked to develop for detail and sharpness, and print for full tone. The fact that that is now exactly how I work is no accident; I think the contrast/grain thing was a milestone along the road to where I am now. If I didn't go through that, I wouldn't be where I am today.

35mm film

One of the things I most wanted to photograph when I first started was bands - loud, abrasive, alternative rock bands. So I did. Halifax has never been a hotbed of international bands, so I was pretty much limited to the few all-ages alternative gigs (I was underage in 1987), but, when they were bands I liked, I did my best to go out and "capture their essence on film" (oh, I was so young). I thoroughly enjoyed photographing concerts though, and eagerly awaited the day I turned 19 and would be able to photograph "real bands" (i.e. alternative bar bands).

35mm film

One thing that my first term at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design did for me was open my eye up to larger film formats - during foundation, at least some of the photographs you make have to be produced on a medium format camera, a Mamiya twin-lens reflex. These cameras force you to change the way you see, because the ground-glass where the image is formed, presents the world reversed left to right. The other reason for using medium format is to generate a larger negative, which is (in theory) easier to print and get full tones on. While I readily accepted the larger negative as easier to print, I also proved that it could have as few tones and as much contrast as 35mm film.

35mm film

My final project for my foundation term at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design was in tune with the remainder of my term. We were to produce 10 final prints, from the body of work we had made over the term. There was to be some unifying theme to the work, but it didn't have to be too formal. The only stipulation was the prints were to be "perfect prints", and the subject was not to be pets, children or graveyards. True to my form of the time (I repeat, I was so young) I shot a roll in a graveyard the week before the project was due, printed good prints of the first ten images on the roll, and handed them in. The Prof. wasn't pleased with the subject of the images, but since I had, in his words, grown, and produced ten full-tone images, he passed me. The funny thing was, one of those ten images I quite liked; it was a statue of the Virgin Mary with her face and features washed off by the rain. I liked a full-tone print. Go figure! On the whole, my first year of photo was a real growth period. The fact I attended the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, after I had begun learning on my own, was I think a very positive element, grounding my skills in discovery as opposed to revelation.