The Pretender

I did something wild and crazy the other weekend.

Something wilder and crazier than I’ve done in a good long while.

I set up a wee lab in the kitchen. And made myself some P. Then went to Newtown to sell it. But nobody bought it cos they thought I was a nark.

Oh hold on. That was my alterego in some cool alternate reality.

I set up a wee lab in the kitchen. And developed myself some film.

Two rolls of 35mm FP4+ which have been sitting on the kitchen table since June waiting for me, and a roll of 120 Tri-X which had been having a tour of the house for the previous 24 hours.

It was kinda wild, kinda crazy, kinda boring, kinda smelly. It has been quite some time since I’ve processed film, and while it doesn’t take much time to get back into the swing of it, it is kinda tedious. Especially when you don’t have a readymade film processing darkroom room where everything is set up and waiting for you.

The 120 stuff I shot on Saturday while pretending to finish my review of Peter Peryer’s latest. I got kinda bored (happens a lot with me) so decided to try and make my own Peryer’s.

I failed miserably. But it was a fun half hour.

Here’s a photo or two.


Here's someone else's thoughts about the Peryer.

As I was writing mine, it occurred to me that in my reviews I never really discuss the merit (or lack thereof) of the art. My logic is that people's tastes are different and a quick flick through the book will tell you whether the art interests you. I just hope I steer some people towards books/artists they may not have previously bothered with.

That, and I wouldn't want to offend anybody by writing something that could be taken to be offensive/patronising/pretentious/opinionated/etc because I would so hate to be accused of being offensive/patronising/pretentious/opinionated/etc.