Where is your studio?
This city is my studio. And it’s not a fluffy answer. It’s the way I see it, with all its meanings. I’ve learned to use what I have, which is whatever was around me, to make it work. I used to joke that I’m a found-light photographer.
This interview appears in Issue 33 of Alta Journal.
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You often develop film in your bathroom. Why?
It began out of poverty. I worked at a cannery for a short period of time, and then it was all minimum-wage jobs, which always meant that I had to be very frugal with my film. In most cases, it was a burrito or a roll of film.
It really helps when you develop your own film because it’s such a complicated process. I work with very low light, so it requires special processing. I’ll do a double bath of developer if the film was really underexposed. At this point, it’s not about the money. It’s really more about having control on the final part of the image making. A lot happens at the last stage in the game.
What materials do you use?
My go-to film is Kodak T-Max 400 pushed to 3200 ISO, so it doesn’t matter what time I shoot. [I get rolls at] Freestyle Photo, which is where I bought my first new camera in 1981.
I just discovered a lab downtown, Color&Black&White Darkroom. It’s amazing. They have top-of-the-line enlargers, so I’m able to get what I need out of my negatives.
What’s your daily routine?
I don’t have a routine. I get up around 1 p.m. because I always work at night. I grew up helping my mother, who worked in the evening [as a janitor]. The only routine I have is going for a walk every day. It’s something I started with my dad, which I hated as a child. But now it’s one of those things that I do religiously.
How do you scout shooting locations?
I drive around and try to remember spaces that have a certain look or lighting scheme, and then I go back and shoot. Nothing is really revealed until I develop the film. That’s when all the phantasms come out. You really see [what] some spaces become when you get the film back. That’s what happens with this alley right next to the Bendix building. The first shoot I did there, when I got the film back, I was really mesmerized. It reminded me of old Los Angeles. The alley is hiding in plain sight, and the light reveals itself in these special moments. You can only see it through film.•
Anna Merlan is a Los Angeles–based investigative journalist and Magic Castle enthusiast. She’s the author of Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power.
