Ever since I received my first Brownie box camera, I have loved taking “pictures”. In 1960 when I traveled to Beirut, Lebanon to begin two years of study (freshman and sophomore years) at Beirut College for Women ( now Lebanese American University). My dad gave me a Yashica camera (twin lens reflex, medium format) to use while in the Middle East. Armed with only the basic instructions, I traveled to various countries in the middle east, in 1960-1962, taking pictures along the way.

In 1988 I ventured into the Amazon rainforest with Earthwatch armed with a point and shoot camera. In 1995, with our four children grown, my husband and I started traveling together and the love of photography was rekindled. In 1998 while in Australia, my point and shoot camera broke. In the fall of 1998, my husband bought me a new Canon camera and enrolled both of us for Photo I (black and white photography) at Raritan Valley Community College. We have been taking courses ever since. While I was taking an alternative print class and thinking about a project for an independent study, I looked in the attic and found the photos I had taken 40 years ago in the Middle East. I also found the negatives to the prints and, to my suprise, most were in good shape after all those years.

PROCESS;

In the photo lab at RVCC, I printed the negatives on fiber paper making them 9 and 1/2 by 9 and 1/2 inches. Once the prints were satisfactory, I sepia toned the prints. The print is first bleached, then washed for a period of time. The final step is the treatment with the sulphide toning solution. Sepia toning involves replacement of the silver in the black and white prints by silver suphide, which is brown. The sepia toning technique is used to give black and white photographs a warmer or antique appearance.