i admit it, sometimes i don’t want to process film. i get tired of standing there and agitating, or shuffling sheets in a tray in the dark. i started doing stand development because i didn’t want to deal, my version of stand development only lasts for maybe 1/2 hour if i remember to come back in time, sometimesit lasts even more. i use the same develop my every day film in, sumatra coffee, washing soda,vitamin c and some dektol. i shake the bubbles off and leave. sometimes i put of processing film for a few weeks or sometimes i am not very good and put it off for a few months, 9 or 10 months this time.
the film sat in a ziplock bag for all this time. i would process sheets, i would develop paper negatives, i would make contact prints, even make emulsions and developers from scratch, coat things, and develop them, but i wouldn’t process the rolls of film. i’d think about it sometimes
finally i processed the film, at least, some of it. i had about 15 or 20 rolls to get through, and i made it through 9 of them. i loaded the film into the metal reels. it took a while since i was out of practice. some reels roll easier than others, and for the first time in a long while i had a few areas touch and not develop. that’s ok. after the film was hung and dried and sleeved i began scanning them. i will eventually print them but i figured scanning is as good a way as any to see what i have, so i scanned, and scanned and scanned. i remember most of the photographs, sort of. but not really. it was a nice feeling to have distance. there wasn’t any sort of importance or need or “i have to see this or that” they were just negatives.
i remember seeing a show on garry winogrand years ago and how he exposed the film and left it for a year or more before he processed it. ( i think there were 10 thousand rolls of film to process after he died. ) and i can see why he did what he did. the distance adds to the editing process. there isn’t a ” this exposure is going to be SO GOOD !” and process the film 20 seconds after it was unloaded. the film is just there and ready when you are, if it is good, its good, if it is bad, you probably don’t remember even making the photograph, so it is OK.
these photographs are from a handful of long walks i took. sometimes they were made walking home from my mechanic;s place abotu 5 miles away. i took 3 differnt routes home. some were taken on the way or way back from picking up beer making supplies. it was a road i used to travel often with a camera but no so much anymore. time sat still and the places were virtually the same.
anyways … it’s ok to leave film for a while before you process it,
it mght even be a good thing.
