Negative-Positive

Negative............
It was with great sadness today that I had to say goodbye to my principal tutor Iain Irving when he announced that he was leaving Gray's to begin ventures anew.  Iain is modest, kind, extremely clever and enthusiastically there for all of his students.  I have without a doubt learned much from the man both academically and as a compassionate human being. I was unable to not be unemotional for I am cursedly demonstrative.  Goodbyes are always hard.


​Positive..........
Yesterday I ventured out with my single plate camera.  Loaded in the plate holders where 
my first glass plates - glass slides coated with liquid emulsion - a gift from one of my classmates from the workshop at Streetlevel, Glasgow.  At 8 am I set my equipment up at the shoreline near to Arbroath Harbour.  

​Making an exposure is a slow process, but far from being agonising this is a joy to me.  In a world where we demand information, food and experiences to be quicker and more intense I immerse myself luxuriously in my bubble of sticky time.  Even if none of my photographs turned out I would still be happy for I would have still engaged in a delicious experiential moment.  

​It was with much excitement that I entered the darkroom and developed my first glass negatives from my new/old camera.  It seemed only fitting that Iain should be gifted the first one.