The Giant Cell Phone in the Room

I'm sure enough has been written about black and white photography. I too lusted after it. It wasn't until this year that I really got into the nitty-gritty of it - darkroom chemicals and everything.

Two years ago I watched the entirety of The Wire on weekends and sick days.. Like most police detective shows, there's always an element of voyeurism, portrayed by the large film camera with a zoom lens. I assume it's film because it makes an audible clicking sound that digital cameras don't actually make. Furthermore, if you're on a stakeout, why the hell would you want your camera to make a sound? Later, darkroom footage/1 hour photo at Walgreens removed, the detectives are looking at 8x10 black and white photo prints on a billboard. Remember: this is set in the mid to late 2000s. Again, I must ask, why black and white? Wouldn't a detective want to see his suspect in color? Is the dirty truth that Kodak is sponsoring all this?

We're so nostalgic for it that TV shows know we rarely ask such obvious questions. Even for the digital kids, black and white IS photography. Loud, clicking cameras ARE photography. For those born in the late 90s and 2000s, it is a nostalgia without a palpable source. But they know. They know what a manual camera sounds like, they know what a payphone is even though they've never used one; although most of them can't remember life before cellphones were readily available.

I'm not saying this kind of nostalgia is bad. It's lovely the way old things take hold of young people. Maybe the digital age longs for a slowness that isn't readily available to them. When I started the darkroom photography class, there was a lot of grumbling and frustration. Here we were, taking days to do what could be done in a manner of hours with digital camera and a computer. Darkoom photography teaches us patience in a world that's short on it. It's not just photography - it's a revival of many slow things: knitting, gardening - the list could go on.

In writing, the choice to use digital or non-digital items can tell you a lot about a character...and the narrator: is it done self-reflexively or merely inserted into the text? The objects date the author, setting and the text itself. I'm always telling students "make this more concrete." What I mean, mostly is, to riff on Milan Kundera, put some weight on that emotional hot air balloon. Throw some stuff in there, make it yours. The pockets are deep, buy whatever you want, or inherit it, if that's your thing, hold onto it, and then, when you're ready to really obsess about it - put it in your poem or story.

(c) Kristin Fitzsimmons

A wee bit of my darkroom handiwork. "Avant Gauze Tea Party."