Craftsmanship

Craftsmanship

My dayjob working life was mainly at a desk, or in a meeting room. Over the last thirty years of it, a very great deal of it was spent with a computer in front of me: writing, researching, communicating.
I think it’s the same for a lot of people – and this was a major reason that I was quite a late adopter of digital photography, because digital means more time at a computer.

Darkroom work feels different: it is different. Instead of sitting looking at a screen, you stand, moving around between workbenches. That’s really important to me, and I want to test out one side of it with you.

It was quite unusual for a pupil expected to do well at ‘O’ Level to take woodwork for more than a couple of years, but I did. I wasn’t desperately good at it, but I enjoyed it, found an interesting challenge there – and I got on well with the teacher, Mr Jones.

He taught me that you need to practice to get good at a craft, and that taking care matters – as well as how to use a tenon saw and a mortice chisel. I also learned about something that amounts to bootstrapping: taking a rough-sawn, vaguely square piece of wood, and making it smooth and square with a progression of steps: first the face side, then the face edge (both gently marked in pencil on the wood).

I’m still not really good at taking my time and working at something hard. But it’s so satisfying when it works well (and so frustrating when it doesn’t). There are links to the world of self-development, as you become aware of your abilities and failings, and set about altering them.

I have a number of friends who seem to be universally gifted: tools and materials obey them, just as horses respond to the whisper of a sympathetic rider.

And – on a good day – printing in the darkroom lets me share in this world. There’s a satisfaction in physically moving things, standing and being active, using my hands to make shapes to dodge and burn, instead of waggling a little round blob on the opposite end of a mouse.

There's no prize for recognising the location of today's pictures: but you may want to show off your photographic geography.