Here we go

Puppy Becky sleeping. 2022.

I’ll probably think way too long about something that rhymes with Bob Loblaw to introduce the Analog Blog. I can continue to think about how to tie in Cyanotype so I can say that I really blue it but then I’m really going down the Arrested Development hole.

But yeah. Here we go!

Latency: The state of existing but not yet being developed.

I remember learning about the latent image in school (I think school, there’s a good chance I read it in a book in my teens) and having my mind blown just a little bit. It’s the Schrödinger's Cat of photography. If you don’t want to click that link (though you should!), essentially, when you push the shutter the latent image both exists and doesn’t exist at the same time. When you make a photograph, there’s no physical image until you’ve processed the film.

There’s way more technical jargon that goes along with the Latent Image, but there’s also the philosophical and tactile process part of it. Sometimes waiting to see the image makes meaning in itself. Then there’s also when you forget you had an exposed roll of film kicking around and you find one beautiful frame of your dog, your friends, your person, coming back from the past to make you smile, even if the rest of the roll is blank or suspect.

And that’s where the name came from. It’s about slowing down, enjoying the process (even if film can be just as technical and professional as digital images) and experiencing the magic of analog photography. The in-between space and breathe of air that analog can give us. And as much as I love photography including digital photography, the Latent Image just doesn’t exist outside of analog processes.

I’m really hoping that as Latency Labs moves forward that it can become a hub for photography in the Sea to Sky (I live in, and the business will always be based in Squamish) corridor but also make space for Vancouver photographers to have a place to go to share, shoot and be around photography.

The final goal? A full brick and mortar lab here in Squamish. At a minimum the lab (and a B&W wet lab), but fully realized would have space for a small studio, intimate gallery space and just enough room to have classes on how to process your own film, host photo walks, large format weekends, a zine(!), wildlife winters (Eagle season on film please!).

I’m so glad to start this process. Bear with me as I grow. Tell me how I can do better. And share your photos with me!

-Dylan