Tuesday, September 16, 2008

From the Archives: Semana Santa in Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras, 2006


LUND--When I went to Central America a few years ago I shot a fair amount of film as usual. That was the trip, however, that I discovered SARA and was introduced to the currileros. Upon return most of my energy was put into printing shows of that one subject and raising money to make the film, "News From El Salvador: The Children of the Mangroves" which I finished this winter. Many of the printed stills, in fact, were taken digitally with a Nikon D1x though many were shot with the Leica as well. The point remains, anyway, that the huge majority of the film I shot on that trip has never been scanned or printed. The additional fact is, out of a four month trip no more than two weeks were spent in El Salvador. In other words there is a large amount of widely varied material from around Honduras and Guatemala.

A while back I began chatting with a guy working at a local photo lab. Turns out he is an American named Justin who has lived here about nine years. The other day I asked him if he could give me some tips on my negative scanner as he is not only a knowledgeable and skilled photographer but a highly experienced lab man. So he came over and gave me some tips on my Nikon CoolScan V and then we tried to unravel the mysteries of Sweden and the Swedes. I don't know if we accomplished that but we did manage to scan this picture (shot on Ilford HP5 with a Voigtlander 15mm on the M6) drink a few beers and have a good conversation.