FiTZBiTS
Photography, media and community
September 5, 2007 at 3:00 pm
filed under Outtakes
On my desk sits a small, delightfully unadorned canister full of of some extremely nasty stuff.
The label, though, is bright and cheerful and the name, “Acufine”, conveys a sense that everything will be all right.
If you’re not a photographer who is at least 30 years old–and even that might be a stretch–the name and retro label won’t mean a thing to you.
If you cut your teeth, however, shooting Kodak Tri-X film Back In The Day in say, cave-like high school gyms, however, then seeing a jar of Acufine stirs memories, some of them downright fond. Acufine, by the way, is the miracle stuff used to process 400 ASA black-and-white Tri-X film when we’d shot it ‘pushed’ to 1600 ASA. The developer beat the pants off of Dektol and D-76, allowing us to push-process this film with much lower grain. It could be stored and reused a great many times before discarding, to boot.
That’s great, you say. Why should I care?
This can, probably a dozen or so years old, serves to remind me that great as memories can be, all things change, probably for good reason.
Beginning today, I’m bringing the skills I’ve honed for many years as a photographer, writer and editor to help provide newspapers with powerful tools for transforming and creating communities online. I’m working with my brother, Jim, who founded Epic Cycle Interactive almost ten years ago. Since that time, his company has grown to provide content management systems and online marketing for a variety of sports and news media companies.
I’ll be continuing to transform myself even as I continue to provide the quality custom imagery my clients have come to expect.
This is a time of challenge and renewal for newspapers everywhere. It’s exciting, and I get to be a part of the whole thing. I’ve always felt that newspapers will always exist, because there’s always a need for the public service they provide. Now, I get to help make sure that newspapers can get their A-game content out there to their communities in ways that are more useful, more immediate and easy to access than ever before.
One day soon, we may look at newsprint and see that in some ways, it resembles that can of Acufine. Still the medium of choice for a certain segment of the population, it will have transformed into something more dynamic, adaptable and relevant.
I have fond memories of developing film on deadline in a cramped and hot darkroom, but I don’t really miss those days. Digital photography has opened up new creative expanses to explore, and gives me more time to spend on making the best images I can. Likewise, I won’t miss the current days of newspapering, but each time I look at that can I’ll smile knowing that I was part of a great wave of positive change.
Everything will be all right.
swanpix
well said Brian!! You are still a part of a great wave of change….and the PPH isn’t what is happening at all the newspapers…say no more…..
best
HS