My fallback if this writing thing didn't work out has always been going back to photo labs. In my twenties, I worked as a custom printer in five different labs: three in Austin, one in Montreal, and one in Brooklyn. Sometimes I'll still rent darkroom time In Manhattan to print old negatives, experiment with Liquid Light, or teach kids the dying art of fixer tester, sepia toner, and dodging and burning. The most memorable lab on my resume was one in Austin that I just wrote this Lives piece about for the New York Times Magazine: "Misery Games."
