Jes Lee

Printing and photo walks

One of the things I have planned for the Made Here exhibit is a new compilation image of things photographed close to where my installation would be. Now that I have a location where my work will be displayed, I needed to get started on creating that new piece.

I had been planning a trip out to the site on Sunday for a while. It would be a quiet day, with not too many things planned. The weather was supposed to be decent, and I figured John and I could get out for a walk, and stop for a drink at some near-by place when I was done.

Of course, I didn’t expect myself to be mostly recovered from being sick, but John to be in the middle of a bad cold. He was understandably not up for going on a long walk around the city with me. So, after much hesitation, I went by myself.

You see, I have always enjoyed photo walks with friends. This is something we would do in photo class…or at least we would always have our cameras with us, ready to turn anything into a photo walk. My friend Julie would always be up for walking around the cities at night while I took pictures, usually leading to crazy adventures, and plenty of stories we still laugh about to this day.

Of course, friends get different jobs, and move away, have kids, and many things change, but I have always seemed to have one friend or another that would go with…until recently.

So, I have gone out more often by myself. I always hesitate at first, my brain telling me I hate going out alone, that there will be too many weird people, that they will hate me for whatever reason…hello inner-critic. But I eventually go anyway.

Today, was one of those days. With my brain telling me not to leave, I left John home to rest, grabbed my headphones and camera, and went to work on this project.

I came home happy, relaxed, and with 5 rolls of film from my walk that went for almost 2 hours. I think it is finally time to stop believing my inner-critic, and start admitting that I am perfectly happy to go out by myself when that is the best option.

5 rolls of film to develop Monday, and see how they might work into a new image for this.

After I got back home, I did some more work on one of the other images. I have re-scanned negatives, making the file size big enough to print 4ft square at 300dpi…and you know what? I actually like the bit I printed from the original image, enlarged past what it should be for printing resolution. I need to talk with a few people who know more about printing things large than I do…but perhaps this means a bit less busy work for me.

It was so amazing, seeing where my work will be installed! I still can’t believe I have this opportunity!

IMG_1371 IMG_1372 IMG_1374