Squares of New River Gorge
June, 2023
I knew how I wanted to photograph, but I did not know what. There was a process unfamiliar to me and a place familiar, but only a little bit. Together, these two things sounded like a recipe for failure.
The "place" part is clear, but I need to clarify the "process": it is called "bleach bypass" and involves skipping the bleaching step in the color film development. That produces two images at once: a black-and-white over color. If you know how to do that, you might get interesting results.
I did not know.
To add injury to the insult, I decided to go with an old film back, which allows shooting squares, giving 12 frames per roll of medium format film. The only caveat is that it has no protection from accidental multi-exposures and missed frames.
I made both.
The result is below - nine marginally acceptable images. But it is my first attempt. Do not judge me too hard.
// Mamiya RB67, Kodak Gold 200
