Week before last I scanned the first 482 4x5 negatives from the project in about 22 hours glued to a computer in the digital labs at the International Center of Photography. I had some leftover TA hours from a year ago that I'd been saving up for just such an occasion. This kind of work requires me to be a machine loading each negative one at a time into a special flexible holder, blowing off the tiny bits of dust you can only see at certain angles of light, placing it into the scanner using these cool little magnetic latches, setting the computer to scan the image which takes a couple minutes, while I wait loading the next negative into a second negative holder and blowing off the dust, unloading the first negative from the scanner, and then loading the next one to scan. Repeat and repeat and repeat. To make the work a little less tedious I tend to put in headphones and listen to a mix of old and new albums that I want to become more intimately familiar with in its details. That week it was:
The National - Trouble Will Find Me
Kanye West - Yeezus
Josh Ritter - The Beast In Its Tracks
Sam Phillips - Push Any Button
The Black Keys - Brothers
Joe Pug - Nation of Heat EP
Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim
The Oh Hellos - Through the Deep, Dark Valley
Iron & Wine - Ghost on Ghost