Curse Of The Darkness

Small, Dead Tree

This is the kind of image, that back in my darkroom days, would have caused me to forever waste away several nights and an entire box of paper. Getting the tonal variations just right would have driven me up the goddamn wall (this lo-res jpeg was pain enough)- and I would most definitely not be a very nice person during those days. Countless test exposures later, there'd always be that one little area somewhere that burning in or undiluted Dektol didn't rescue, or that dodging hadn't saved- and bleach sent straight to hell. Gallons of hazardous chemicals poured down our nations waterways, untold old growth forests stripped bare, precious hours of my life never to be fully lived, realized or repeated. But in the end- I would at least have a brilliant, beautiful print to gaze upon... (maybe, usually). Actually, when all was said and done, after hour upon ceaseless hour of cussing out my ancestors, friends and every historical figure and celebrity known to mankind- I'd be sick of looking at the damn thing...

And yet, there are those who insist on describing the darkroom as... "therapeutic."