Keeping it Analog

The picture above is a digital image of an analog image I took and made this week to demonstrate creating a print the Dual Enrollment class I teach for Kendall. Half of the class is spent creating digital images and the other is spent in the darkroom. 

After spending the last seven weeks evaluating digital images, I am really excited to move onto working in the darkroom. There is something so magical about taking black and white images, developing your own film, and then creating a print from one of your negatives. I was as giddy as any kid about to open a gift when it came time for me to demonstrate developing film and enlarging prints. I cannot describe the feeling I get when I first see the images, realizing everything was exposed at the right rate and that all steps worked along the way. 

It was funny when I came across a John Spencer post expressing a similar vibe this week. I love technology and working with digital images and blended learning has become a large part of how I teach. For all of that love, though, it will ever completely replace or supplement the joy I feel when I draw or paint or sculpt or develop a print with chemicals.