Clyde Cooper’s BBQ, originally uploaded by viridari.

I can’t help but identify with Clyde Cooper’s BBQ joint in downtown Raleigh.

Cooper’s shabby little two story brick building stands in stark defiance quite literally in the shadow of progress.

While the world is moving from film to digital photography, I’ve gone in the opposite direction. I still shoot digital, certainly, but I find I prefer film these days. And I was one of the earliest of the early adopters of digital, having switched primarily to digital photography back in 1995.

This image was taken on the first roll of film that I developed myself in about 20 years. The last time I went through this process, I was in high school. Much has changed in photography since then. But as I carefully hung the negatives in my spare bathroom, I smiled when I looked at this one and thought to myself that this subversive act of mine, moving back to film, has quite a lot in common with old Clyde Cooper’s place.

While I fully expect the City of Raleigh to condemn Cooper’s joint in the interest of re-assigning the property to a wealthy developer who will put a big bland tower of glass and steel on the spot, hopefully it will be a lot longer before I’m forced to give up the simple pleasures of working in analogue photography.

As I previously alluded to, this picture was from the first roll of film that I have developed myself in about 20 years.  It’s good to be back.  This was the big bottleneck keeping me from working more often in film, as I didn’t want to incur the very high fees from the lab.  Developing my own film also gives me a lot more creative control in the full process.

Vital stats:

Olympus Stylus Epic Zoom 80
Ilford HP5+ 400 (shot at box speed)
Rodinal 1:50 @ 70F for 10m