My darkroom calls to me yet I ignore it. My heart lately has not been there. I am losing my enthusiasm. I am in a dark place rather then a dark space (or vise versa). I still believe a darkroom can be the best toy a boy or girl ever had. Mixing chemicals, working under a pale amber light with printing paper in trays of Developer, Stop and Fix. Dark for dark business. It's engaging to all the senses in ways that a digital camera and photoshop could never be. It's something real rather then virtual. The world of photography though is abandoning reality for "virtuality". Purists are seen as lunatics. Where is William Morris when you need him?

This is an attitude I saw prevalent among all of Portlands Photo-luminaries. Image is everything and process is nothing. No one abandoned painting when photography was invented yet now that we have digital photography we seem to be abandoning analog photography and no one cares. This depresses me.

It's been almost three years now since I took a work shop with one of Portlands "photo luminaries" I learned one important thing from her that I have to keep reminding myself of. "Don't ever expect anyone else to care for your photographs as much as you do." It's good advice and a bit like those Oriental Aphorisms that are both blessings and curses rolled in one like "May you live in interesting times", or "May your children bury you."

So remember it.