As part of archiving / remastering some of my work in higher resolution, I recently digitized negatives from my first shoot. I believe this is from 2001… Lynn modeled for me, and I am forever grateful for her patience as I did my best to stumble through the learning process.

I would love to say that I had some kind of Francis Bacon-esque inspiration for distorted imagery… but reality is – I had no idea what the hell I was doing! I was shooting with a “real” camera, on film for the first time. I hadn’t yet learned about he holy trinity of ISO / Shutter Speed / Aperture and it’s pretty obvious.

I was shooting on cheap black and white 400 speed film, (that I ended up loving for it’s slightly green hue.) For lighting I think I had one worklight and a house lamp… Regardless, we had fun, and I was pleased with a most of what we captured, motion blur, poor focus and all. Lynn looks beautiful, and the images have a ghostly, ethereal quality. The end results reminded me of old school spirit photography from the 20s, an aesthetic I enjoy.

The experience of shooting and seeing my prints for the first time was exhilarating, and cemented the desire to continue experimenting with photography. It also certainly motivated me to actually LEARN the fundamentals before shooting again!