Students in the Darkroom!

It's been a successful week in the darkroom! I've taken my class through in groups to make their first 3 photograms each. (The Concordia University darkroom only has 7 stations, so we had to work in small groups.)

"Group A" was super excited to see their images appear on their test strips in the developer.


"Group B" didn't show the same level of inital enthusiasm, but they made solid images as well!


And "Group C" was a fast working group. Here they are creating their photograms at their stations.

It feels like we've come a long way since my last post last week!!

Beginning of the Semester Darkroom Work

I posted this photo on social media last week with the caption "It's been a minute..."

That's my first darkroom print in about 9 years. It was just a simple photogram as a test for my darkroom photography class. And now my hands smell like nostalgia.

Here are a few more pics of the Concordia University darkroom:

Wide shot.


Chemistry in the middle in the distance, and the wash sink on the right.
With a table for drying film developing tanks/reels in the foreground.


Later that day, I was doing *this* lecture at the University of Minnesota.

I've already caught myself once talking about FILM after heading from a DARKROOM photography class to a DIGITAL photography class just 30 minutes later across town. No one minds, and it actually prompted a bit deeper of a discussion.

On to week 3 of the semester!

Fall Semester Teaching: at a New University!

I posted 3 selfies on social media on Wednesday after I had all three "first classes" of the semester. Here's what I said: "First days of my fall classes! I have 2 different classes at the U of M, and one at Concordia (where I forgot to take a first day photo, so the last pic is after signing my paperwork in July)."

After my Photography class at the University of Minnesota.


After my Graphic Studio class the U of M.


After signing my paperwork at Concordia back in July.

Concordia is a new addition to me. I was able to drop teaching at North Central (which was nice just because it paid the least), and I'm still the only photography professor at Hamline University, but they just don't need me this semester. In the spring, it looks like I'll be at Concordia, Hamline, and the U of M!

And I think the biggest news from these classes so far is that my Concordia class is a darkroom class! Their darkroom (that I posted about in May) is now my responsibility, and I now look over John Marshall's enlarging stations. AND that means my prediction last April about having just taught my last film-based class quickly was proven false!

On the first day at Concordia, I went through the 35mm cameras and passed one out to each student:

From AE-1s to Rebel 2000s.


Heading down the hallway to my first day of class.


Concordia is the first place I've seen that seperates "darkroom" into 2 words.


Notes from our 2nd day of class at Concordia (today). Love that day!

Stay tuned for some darkroom updates as I'm excited to get that up and running again!

Catalog from "The Shape of Things" at the Praxis Photo Center

Sorry, this post has been stuck as a "draft" for about 10 months. Here are a few images from Vol. 2 of "The Shape of Things" exhibition catalog:

[click any image to enlarge]

A more legible juror's statement.


A spread I liked.


My image on the left.

Here's more general info on catalogs from exhibitions at Praxis Photo Center. And here are links to the catalog shown above in softcover and hardcover.

In case you missed it, here are some photos from the opening reception of "The Shape of Things" in September of 2021 as well as some exhibition images.

The Loss of a Photography Mentor

Word started spreading yesterday. In the late afternoon, it had been made official:

I posted a goofy photo of John on Facebook (because he's NEVER serious for a photo) and shared a story. Here's the story and people's responses - I took out the comments of people not associated with CVA, so these are only people who knew John in a similar capacity as I did:

Here are a few photos from social media of John and I over the years:

This one was captioned: "At the 2011 CVA Holiday Sale. Henry is
trying to figure out the art, and John is trying to figure out Henry."


Me holding year-old Henry with John smiling in the background at Ellen's house for an end-of-the-school-year party.


Same party. With students and Caroline.


A CVA meet-up at the MN State Fair a year after CVA closed. We're showing off our CVA shirts.


CVA crew outside of the Bailey House at the State Fair where some
Lowell Bobleter prints were on display. (The founder of CVA back when it was CAA.)

And just 3 months ago I posted about seeing Concordia University's darkroom which still had the enlarger stations that John had built for CVA 11-12 years ago:

And here are two of John from this big post of photos from CVA's history:

John talking as a dept head. (2011?)


Leading a critique. (2005-ish?)

Besides that long post, John's also seen helping out with his carpentry skills while hanging a CVA exhibition in 2015, and at the opening of the new CVA photo labs in 2011. And John was also mentioned in my recent interview about my education in the arts in the Concordia University newspaper.

A photographer friend shared this wonderful image of John, and I'll end this tribute with that photo:

Rocket Launch Destroys Camera

I saw this image on the web and had to investigate:

It turns out the story is true, but not how I imagined it.

NASA photographer Bill Ingalls set up several remotely triggered cameras near the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to capture a SpaceX launch. And he was successful:

Image from NASA / Bill Ingalls.

Ingalls went to pick up his cameras, and he had ones closer to the launch pad that were just fine. But one that was farther away and captured the previous image looked like this:

Image from NASA / Bill Ingalls.

No, it wasn't the blast of the rocket that burned this instantly (which is how I imagined it in my mind). Instead, the rocket launch sparked a brush fire (which is apparently not uncommon) and Ingalls camera fell victim. He said it had continued to take photos "until its demise," and shared one of the final images:

Image from NASA / Bill Ingalls.

Is that the lens hood melting down at the top of that image? Wild.

Newspaper Article About My "4 a.m." Exhibition

I was interviewed by Ron from the Concordia University newspaper "The Sword." Ron took a unique approach for the article. Here a pic of it which features a photo of me and Concordia professor Cate Vermeland, and below that is a readable scan of the article:

Thanks for the interview Ron!

For more on my exhibition that was up this past winter, check out this link with all the photos from the exhibition, as well as this link that has more related links at the bottom of it.

Peter Adams on Cameras

As someone who just had a solo exhibition consisting of work shot on a 16-year-old digital camera, I tend to agree.