recaps

- that summer was a great summer. paul said as i ran into him driving through trout river. it was when i was up at parks canada with minnesota flats. photographing and hanging out at the seabreeze.

it must have been true as i was using that summer as a basis for this one, hoping to use what worked so successfully then once again in a place that was even more remote. it would be the same modus operandi where i would restrict myself only to the french shore.

it was the cusp of the season. the “warmth” had returned but everything was still on winter hours - closed. sunset café, granite coffee, trout river interpretative centre, even the post office. i had forgot this. i wanted to deliver some new snaps - taken during the navegatio but forgot last year. luckily trout river is small enough to go to the director’s house.

as i had stated there was a lot of equipment brought along but that was due to the anticipated length of my stay in the atlantic time zone and to the east. they all had their strict roles - joãozão could be used on the mainland and while wandering new york city, ziquinho would be brought out once in cape breton and on the way to conche. it would also be used when the residency ended. on the residency it would be only the deardorff.

after the gravel road to conche everything looked promising - heading down to the cove that first evening standing by casey’s store and seeing two orcas, a lot of dry wood under the bench on the porch, an assuming house with a large kitchen, but so clean i felt intimidated about developing and printing.

it turned out to be the anti parks canada - not due to anything the french shore interpretative centre or the people of the great northern did but due to everything else. the cusp of season where further down the great northern had me questioning why nothing was open as spring had won out. here winter was still trying to hang on - gale force winds with snow showers. when the snow did stop it was replaced with rain, and rain, and rain.

still quite proud of myself, i soldiered on. the rain - and snow - and gale force winds - came in spurts, i would head out and wait. i felt that good fortune was with me when even though the deardorff was blown over but the camera came out of it unscathed.

i think slowly so i was particularly proud when i rearranged the bathroom to develop film at night and the kitchen to dry the negs. i had a work routine down. there was even a lounge to replace the seabreeze. this was going to be great.

except that a good number of negs were ruined by a light leak.

puzzled over it and decided it was a double dark slide so returned the next day to re-photograph the images that i wanted a a few more.

again the light leak. the same spot but not on every neg.

it was intermittent. since i was developing half the negs every evening i didn’t worry as i could return if i really wanted the snap. it was there on quite a few but only because i knew what i was looking for. i reckoned that the images would reflect the place. functional but not pretty.

as i back up i would head out with either ubirajara or ziquinho.

a book of platinotypes - why not - came of it and am quite pleased.

returning to the states in the dark i placed a light within the deardorff turned off the lights in the room and had my own planetarium from all the holes in the bellows.