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STENO'DAM... AMSTERDAM A TRAVERS... By Caloz Patrick Book Preview

A little about myself...

All started during adolescence, I still do remember perfectly when I went, hair in the air, on my moped to my friend who had installed a lab in his cellar...

Beers in the fridge, good music in the background, we were ready to take off for a magical journey... at the light of the dark room I was discovering photography. This light which left a trace on the paper, this light that I was able to grade just with my hands...

It was love at first sight: to modify an image simply with a negative, light and a photosensitive surface was, and still is, to me, something fascinating. All my taste for photography started from here.

Later, my studies have left that away and, during 5 or 6 years I haven't done anything photographical. But the memory of the scene I just mentionned was ancred deeply in my mind.

Some travels, some remembrance photos and some compliments from my travel mates gave me confidence.

I have spent my first savings in a black and white lab. It moved with me to my different locations, sometimes been installed in a cellar, sometimes in an attic, in a room... which became now the one of my kids!

I then got to know the Photoclub of Fribourg - of which I'm still today member of. I have learned a lot in exchanges with other members and I'm often using the fully furnished lab we have.

I have printed, modified, tried until today. All my images are developped and printed in a total analog way, coming out from a traditional loboratory. Besides the technical apects and the financial assets, the lab gives me the opportunity to go out and to live my passion without being disturbed. Once the developer, the stop bath and the fixer are ready, I switch off the light and time stops.

It is my natural attraction for light which brought me to switch fully to the use of pin-hole since 2 years. From the black box (Pinhole) to the dark room (Lab) the loop is closed.

Patrick Caloz
Switzerland