Finding meaning in a new town
In August of 2017, my wife and I bought a townhouse in Urbana, Maryland, situated a few miles south of the city of Frederick in Frederick County. We moved from Arlington, Virginia, where I had resided, off and on, for 20+ years.
Moving from Arlington was a difficult decision for us. We both had friends and developed social, and business networks that we knew were at risk if we moved. But with a growing family and artist incomes, we had to decide if we ever hoped to gain equity.
Since buying a house in Arlington wasn’t within our budget, we had to look elsewhere. We had several vital considerations driving our decision. 1. Good schools. 2. To be within reasonable reach of the city (DC). 3. Affordability.
We both liked Frederick from the few times we had visited over the years, but we didn’t really know much about it. We only knew one other family in Frederick, and they were also new to the area. With a newborn, a school-aged boy, a full-time job, and a whole lot of side gigs, there was no time for me to explore or find new friends.
It would be almost a full year later before I finally decided to hit the streets in my new (adjacent) town. I still didn’t have much time on my hands, so this project would start out slow and without much direction. Without a clear concept, I decided to limit myself in hopes of finding one. My initial rules were one camera, one lens, one film type.
The camera I chose was my favorite, a Mamiya 7 fitted with a 65mm ƒ4 lens, and the film for this project was Kodak Tmax 400. I also decided I was going to process the film all in Ilford Ilfotec DD-x using semi-stand development. I maintained my rules initially, but my interest in these limitations started to wain after a while. They originally served me because the lack of options helped limit my decisions and just go hunting for images.
The photographic results shown in this post are from my first 3 rolls shot for this project. Looking back on them some years later allows me (and will allow you!) to see how this project has evolved and improved. In follow-up posts, you will start to see patterns emerge and solidify as I incorporate different films, lenses, and even cameras!
