Notes from a Recovering Professional Photographer

I spent most of the past 20 years hunkered down in front of a computer, tweaking color balance and cropping and exporting and preparing files to print from weddings, portrait sessions and more. And when the passion for each session began to fade, I knew it was time to make a change.

So I bought the first camera I really loved: A Leica M4-P. My first one was new-old stock that had been sitting on the shelves of a (now gone) camera store in Evanston, Ill. It was completely mechanical. No autofocus. No meter. Just mechanical perfection. After scouring Ebay for months, a friend told me about a couple of them available in Milwaukee. So one day, on my day off, I made the trek and came home with a perfect camera.

And just like that, the passion returned. Film. No chimping, no autofocus, no idea whether any given photograph worked or didn’t until days or weeks later in the darkroom. I loved the intersection of art and science. I loved the not-knowing. And I loved the time spent under the amber light, in near darkness, listening to jazz and struggling to make art.

Now, two years later, I’ve ditched my studio, set aside my digital gear, and have fully embraced the analog experience. I am an amateur in the best sense of the word, from the latin for lover, because I love the whole process and I want to share the experience of film, want you to embrace the uncertainty, the pace, the tactile experience of holding a print you’ve made.

I hope to take some time every now and then to share new work, new ideas, and notes on my journey back to film.