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Left: Spring 2024, Aquarium Village Shops, South Beach, OR (AmBr paper negative, 5"x7")

Eugène Atget loved Paris. In the last half of the 19th century, Paris was on the brink of the modernization. Atget made it his mission to photograph as much of the old city as possible before it disappeared. His legacy is extraordinary. He accomplished this with a view camera and commercial silver gelatin glass dry plates. The emulsion would have been similar to AmBr.

Newport, Oregon, is my Paris. I've lived here for twenty years — long enough to have seen fundamental changes. Many of the changes are excellent. Oregon State University and NOAA research ships have joined the fishing boats in the Yaquina Bay. Newport/South Beach is a hub of scientific research (although, as I write this, that is being decimated by DOGE Vandels, LLC). Even before the political destruction, not all the changes have been to my liking. I appreciate ideosyncratic funk and that always seems to be on the chopping block. A year ago, I was struck by a viseral need to better document my Newport. Like everyone else, I take about a million digital photos a year, but I wanted to have more fun than that. I chose paper negatives. They don't take much longer to make than a long Lightroom/Photoshop post-processing session and photo'ing with an old view camera is great fun.

It will take me several months to fully remodel The Light Farm. Concurrently with that, I'll share my paper negative images of Newport. Hopefully, they might spark someone's interest in the same kind of project in their own home town.

Below: Spring 2024, Aquarium Village Shops, South Beach, OR (AmBr paper negative, 5"x7")