Contact Sheets

I had mentioned earlier that my first contact sheets date back to 1958.

Does the term "contact sheet" require an explanation? OK, one would take a developed roll of film and cut it into strips. In the darkroom these strips would be pressed against a sheet of photo paper, under glass, and exposed to light. After developing the paper, the result would be a series of mini-photos, a physical record of one’s work that could be used in the future. As I recall, a contact sheet was a big plot point in Antonioni’s Blow-Up.

But what about my last contact sheet? Good question: I had to go look. The last B&W contact sheet was filed into a three-ring binder in 2001, I think in Autumn. On it can be found standard 35mm shots taken with a Leica Minilux, my small camera at that time: San Francisco skyline, Mt. Tamalpais from the ferry . . . (I still have this camera . . . very nicely put together.)

It was around then that I started to incorporate elements of the digital process into my "workflow." (I think that this term must be relatively new.) I started using color negative film for scanning purposes in 1997. And, now and then, I used B&W chromogenic film in the Minilux.

I didn’t buy a digital camera until 2004.