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Black Hands

One of the things I love most about the tintype process is being in the darkroom with Larry mixing the chemistry. We stand side by side, me reading out the exact directions and he carefully measuring each grain or drop into a beaker. The look on his face is one of sheer concentration, I can’t help thinking he must have had the same expression as a little boy tackling a particularly difficult math problem or affixing a tiny wheel to one his model cars. Our “recipe” book is covered in so many splotches, it’s becoming difficult to make out some of the words. The air hums gently from the whirring fan and all of the day’s demands remain outside that darkroom door. At the end of it, our hands are stained, and we’re a little woozy from ether fumes. For those few hours we remember why we became photographers but most importantly reaffirm how much we love doing everything together.

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