This year marks the 50th anniversary of my arrival in Point Reyes. It also marks 50 years since I developed my first rolls of film. I have fond memories of creating the first prints from these negatives. The images illustrating this post are from those first self-developed rolls. Back then I almost exclusively photographed my friends. These photographs are all from the autumn months of 1973.
In the autumn of 1973 the company I worked for, the Brass Menagerie, relocated from San Francisco to Point Reyes Station. We were a small manufacturer of brass and wood novelty items. The old Creamery Building in downtown Point Reyes was available and suitable for our business. The company purchased the abandoned creamery. Getting out of the city and into the natural beauty of coastal West Marin was a dream for all of us. Many of us left the city and collectively found places to rent in this area. I was one of several managers of the business, but in my spare time I often dreamt of becoming a photographer.
I carried my camera with me everywhere and pretty much pointed my lens at my friends. I had not yet discovered the landscape and becoming an artist was unthinkable. Then something happened one day that was life changing. A door opened that led to a life-long journey into creative photography and art. My neighbor, Marie, asked me a simple question. “Who develops your film and makes your prints?” Naively, thinking the answer obvious, I answered, “I drop the films off at Photomat and pick up the results in a couple of days, doesn’t everyone?” I noticed as we talked that Marie was tending a garden hose that trickled into a stainless steel container. She looked down at it and fished a reel out of the tank. On the reel was a roll of wet film! Marie looked up and said, “I develop my own film. I’m going to hang this one up to dry. Would you like to learn how to do your own films?” With that offer, I was off to the races!
Within a week and after a few of Marie’s film developing lessons, I heard that a neighbor was selling his complete darkroom set up for $75. I tapped my savings and rushed out to secure the equipment. I never turned back and over they years I built several darkrooms, each one more advanced. From that time on, some fifty years ago, I developed tens of thousands of negatives–every exposure of black and white film I made I also personally developed.
Last night, I went deep into my archive of negatives and found the first rolls I self-developed in 1973. There was nary a landscape in the bunch, but lots of photographs of my friends. I’ve gathered a few of my favorites here for this post. We were oh, so young and smooth-skinned then! Fifty years ago I came to Point Reyes and took the first important steps to becoming a photographer.