On April 12th I returned to the darkroom for my last printing session for the Apparitions project... at least for the foreseeable future. I reprinted three previous negatives, and printed three more new ones. This now gives me a total of 34 different images for the project. For a couple of them, there are different versions and orientations of the same negative, and I'm only counting those as one in this total of 34. From these I need to select the 16 prints that will be framed for exhibition. The selection process will be undertaken together with my colleague and collaborating artist, Arturo. On numerous occasions over the past five years we were out photographing together, and we need to make certain that there is no duplication in our image selection.
The shot of the old miners boots is a reprint of one that I did a couple weeks ago. Previously I tried both a vertical and horizontal orientation of this image. I liked the vertical a little better, and this time around I cropped in a little tighter on the boots. We shall see if this one makes the cut for exhibition. If not, I may still display it up at Nordegg, where the image was taken.
The image of the old house is also a reprint. I printed this one a month or two ago. Two of the three prints that I made had issues with uneven burning. The third was damaged in handling and had a small rip in the paper. So I made a couple of new prints that are essentially identical to the earlier ones.
The shot of the swings in front of the old school is also a reprint of one done some time ago. The original print had a lot of flaws due to dust on the negative. Rather than try to spot all of those, I just made a couple of new prints. This time around I also cropped in slightly tighter. There was an area of flare on the print, near the lower right corner. The tighter crop largely eliminated this.
The remaining three are all new images. The shot of the stump and the buddha was taken down in East Coulee. This is part of a shrine that a local resident has erected as a memorial to his parents. It is located on land that he owns, that was once part of a coal mine. I thought the stump with the prayer flags looked a lot like a person playing the flute. The tipple of the coal mine is visible in the background. A lot of people have claimed that this site is a native burial ground. That couldn't be further from the truth. I know that for a fact, as I have spoken to the resident that constructed the memorial.
Another new shot is the one of the parts bins. These are in the company store at the Brazeau Collieries Historic site. I photographed here on a number of occasions over the past several months, always with permission and on a tour.
The final image is a shot of an old work bench full of junk, in an abandoned building on an old farm. I'm not sure about this one and mostly just wanted to see what it looked like in a larger print. It looks a little cluttered and busy in my opinion, without a real center of interest. The window on the right side is a little blown out, and the foreground junk on the floor is slightly out of focus. It's doubtful this one will make the cut.
So now the final selection process will begin. I do not plan on printing any additional negatives at this time as there are more than enough to choose from. Going forward, if I develop some as yet unprocessed film and come up with anything really strong, then I may choose to add it. Furthermore, any exhibition opportunities that arise are not likely to be until 2026 or later. So if some strong new images are taken in the mean time, I could potentially add them later.
These snapshots were all taken with my phone, as I worked on fixing, clearing and toning of the prints. They are in trays, in a water bath. As such there are some shadows and reflections on the prints that are obviously not part of the image. This is intended only to illustrate what I have been working on.
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