Well another day and another photo
series idea comes forth. I was thinking what project can I use
my 600 sheets of Tri-x 8x10 film for? This film is expensive, I
need to use it it on an important series of pictures. I have always felt that
buying film was more important than other concerns, like gear, socializing with
friends, traveling, buying the latest greatest toys etc. There is a catch thou!
Once you buy the stuff you can't sit on your ass and dream about making
pics, you have the film in your freezer getting older by the day, you need to
create, you need to shoot! I bought my $4000 of Tri-x 8x10, now what
do I do with it? The great thing about film is not owning it, that's not why its
more important than those other things mentioned. The great thing about film is
what you can create with it, with film you can make photos, you
can capture immortal moments that tell powerful stories, if the pic is good enough.
I was looking through Kenro Izu's
book "A Thirty Year Retrospective" and was inspired by 2 of his
Buddhist monk photographs. I thought why not do a series on monks in Thailand?
I could travel to all areas of the country to all the small temples I can find
and make pics with the 8x10 Masterview or the Deardorff. Heck I could even
extend the work into other Buddhist countries like Laos, Burma and Cambodia.
This project like most of my others might take a 5 years or longer to complete.
Another more extravagant option
would be to use a larger format view camera, Mr. Izu used a 14x20
Deardorff for his work so a 11x14 camera or something larger is possible. Like
always more thought needed, got to think about this for a while and see if it
develops into something greater.
