A Little Bit About Bob

I am an engineer by training who finds great solace in the arts.  Photography has held an important spot in my life for a very long time.  My first camera was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye.  I remember that camera well and wish I still had it, but alas we all move on.  From there I used a number of instamatic type cameras until early high school when I got my first 35mm camera, a Yashica TL Electro X.

After college I began delving deeper into photography and built my first darkroom.  With that I graduated to a Zone VI 4×5 view camera and ultimately a Deardorff 8×10 camera with all of the different format backs including a 4×10.  I still have both of those cameras along with a Mamiya 645 Pro that has travelled the world with me.  One of my primary cameras today it my iPhone 11 Pro Max.  I have produced many many wonderful images with it that bring me great satisfaction.

Around about 2015 I began teaching myself alternative photographic printing processes.  Beginning with Palladium printing I learned how to produce and fine tune digital negatives, mixing and applying the chemistry, making exposures on a Lawson ExpoLite table with blacklight tubes for the light source and processing the images.  After many trials and tribulations I began producing very satisfying prints, many of them from my iPhone images.  After mastering Palladium I moved on to Cyanotype, Salt Printing and Kallitype.

Since 2016 I have been teaching black and white film photography as an adjunct instructor here at the local community college where I am the Director of User Services as my day job.  In addition to that I have also taught a number of alternative printing processes classes passing on my earned knowledge to other like minded photographers.

The arts are extremely important to all of us.  Yet they often do not receive the recognition and support that they need.  I would like to close this part of my discussion out with a quote I have used on more than a couple of occasions when discussing the arts in education: