Here's a question that has alway nagged me. How do people find thier
supplies? For example, as far as I know (and I could be wrong), there is
only one place in all of Canada that sells PMK Pyro and printng out paper.
Most alt-process materials do not even seem to be commercially produced
anymore. Weird, but I suppose by today's standards, colour dye transer
could be considered an "alt-process".
I've found sites on the net that sell photo cehmistry supplies, but I am
jsut intertest how most people go aobut gahtering thier materials. Part of
my interst lies is the fact that I write article for a national astronomy
journal here in Canada, and one of my futre article ideas is how hard it is
obtain supplies and equipment for the serious amature. To me, it is
interesting to draw parallels to other (for lack of a better term) "unique
hobbies". I see two trends emerging in society. First, there seems to be
a return to "traditional" arts and skills - eveyrthing form home brewing of
beer to quilting to amature blacksmithing and on and on and on. Secondly,
despite there being a new shopping mall built on just about every major
street corner in the US & Canada, the actual range of mechandise avaialbe
for people to buy seems to be shrinking. In almost every case, supplies
for "traditional" arts are hard to obtain.
So, if you do not mind be wavering too far off topic here, how do people
gather thier suppleis together? Do they make their own, bug the heck out
of the local camera store to carry what they need, etc.
take care
joe
http://www.multiboard.com/~joneil
B&W, Large Format Images From Southern Ontario