Old things intrigue us. I find old stone things especially compelling. The older the better. Back inJuly of 2000, I had the opportunity to extend a 5 hour layover in London, England into a two week photographic journey back through centuries of Scottish history.Equipped with a tent, camp stove, and 20 rolls of Ilford black and white film, I set off in a tiny rental car to scour the Scottish countryside looking for the ruins of castles, cathedrals, and monasteries. Research with guidebooks and maps lead to some of the bigger and more impressive ruins, but many of the real treasures were serendipitous discoveries encountered along the way.
I was most drawn to the older stone structures that had been most affected by the ravages of time and least affected by the interventions of our modern age. It was mind boggling to see such massive structures, constructed hundreds of years ago with such precision attention to detail. Some have withstood the ravages of time with incredible tenacity, while others have succumbed to the elements in rather dramatic ways. The vast quantity of subject matter appearing before my lens required me to be very frugal with my twenty 36 exposure rolls of film.
As it turned out, this was to be my last photographic project using film. Shortly after processing this film and making a few prints, I packed up my darkroom and transitioned to the world of digital photography. Digital prints and custom framing of any images are available for purchase.
