John Wagner

I am entirely self-taught as a photographer and fine-printer of my work. All my images are shot with an antique Hasselblad camera 500 c/m camera, on B&W film - not digital - and printed from negatives by me, the photographer, in a darkroom that I constructed in the basement of my Santa Fe home. I use Ortho 25 ASA film – ultra-high contrast – to bring out heightened degrees of grays, whites, and black in the images. Shooting in black and white on film isn't about nostalgia or ease; it's about embracing the difficulty that comes with each shot. The process demands patience, precision, a deep connection to the moment, and a tremendous amount of luck too.