There’s something about the Midway Grocery in Norman, OK that calls out asking to be photographed in black and white. Perhaps it’s because it has been around since 1926, and the front door feels like a portal to another time.
And, when there’s live music at the Midway, old Ted Grant’s quote rings strong and true. Makes an old photographer long for his old AE-1 loaded with Tri-X Pan 400.
Because, while there’s powerful software with almost unlimited options for processing digital files into black and white images, it’s just not the same as the magic of standing in a dark room under a dim red light, carefully inserting a negative into the enlarger, exposing a sheet of photo paper, slipping it into a tray of developer, and watching an image appear as if Captain Kirk is beaming in 2D onto the paper.
Of course, nostalgia has a way of making us forget that there’s no undo button in a dark room. You get one shot at exposing the paper and moving it from the developer to the stop bath at exactly the right moment. Also, the cost of setting up a dark room would quite likely be more than enough to pick up a nice new full-frame mirrorless body.
So, for now I’ll just close my eyes and try to conjure the smell of the chemicals, the thrill of an image appearing under an inch of wavy liquid, and the satisfaction of a row of prints hanging on the line to dry.
