This is the first blog post being written for TimeGeist. Hi, I’m Celeste and this is my little project. I am sure that the first version of this site will be a cynical and deeply referential and self-referential. So I want to take this little space to break the kayfabe and thank you, genuinely, for being here.
Film development is a passion of mine. I got into film photography for the aesthetic of it all. Both the incredible way that film photos look, and the tactile nature of the hobby. I wont wank around and call it “inimitable” because Fuji’s film stock sims show that anything can “look like film” if you use enough filters. But still, there was something special about the physical side of photography. This is the strip of plastic that, by being coated with magic chemicals, can capture light and freeze an instance. It captures a record of my life, of the life of those around me. Of the queer and artistic communities I’ve grown to call my own.
A year after I started shooting film, I bought a dev tank and some Rodinal1. And I started developing my own film. And that first experience hooked me. It was a struggle, but after fumbling around in a dark bag for a while, mixing chems and being deeply unsure of what I was doing, I opened the tank and pulled out a perfectly exposed and developed roll of film.
In my hands, I held something I shot. Through my hands, it has been preserved. And through my actions, I get to share it with the world. That was magical.
I’ve grown a lot since then. I’ve made mistakes, I’ve tested different chemicals and dev processes. I am still learning and will continue learning for years. I’ve developed a lot of film.
And I’ve started developing film for my friends. Which is where this project comes into play2. If there’s something that can be said about me, I love enabling the creativity of my friends. So, having set myself up in a situation where developing black and white essentially only cost my time, I started developing and scanning film for my friends.
And in that, I found even more magic. Now I’m not just seeing my own pictures come to life. I am seeing photos taken by people I care deeply about, and I get to be part of those photos coming to life and being a part of this world. Every roll I pull out of the tank I get to see a snapshot of a person’s life, a day or a week or six months, however long that roll lived in their camera. I see their point of view, the things that caught their eye.
I’m not the best photographer in the world. I don’t pretend to be. But I like being in a community with people who share my love for the craft. And I am glad to help them bring their art to life.
That’s what this project ultimately is about. I love art, and I think this world should be full of it. So this is my little pet project to make that happen.
Maybe 10 years down the line this is a huge operation like The Darkroom. Maybe I never go any further than my own kitchen. But if I have helped at least one person create art, I’ll be happy knowing I made this world a better, more beautiful place.
welcome to TimeGeist.
Thank you for believing in me.
- Well, some R09 One Shot, which is chemically identical to rodinal just not using the trademark. Also ofc I bought some fixer and the rest of the chems, I know what I’m doing. ↩︎
- Okay. I also wanted to be cool like the rest of my friends and have my own lil personal company to kinda house all my projects under, like Taco Bell Labs or Mayatel or Xantronix. ↩︎