1987 | Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
I used a lot of 4x5 Tri-X. It had a thick emulsion to record a great range of densities, especially with my heavy exposure/soft development scheme. It also had a thick base which only allowed me to store a years’ work in a twelve-inch-long archival “shoe-box.”
So to save space, after first making contact proofs of every technically-decent negative, I would make a first edit and throw any “uninteresting” negatives away, along with the matching contact proof, assuring myself that I would not be hunting around regretfully later for a mis-matched pair.
Later came, and I marked this odd proof with an advisory. I have yet to find the negative or its sisters, but I still have something to show!