I built this while still an assistant working for Alan in 1987, right before opening my own place. You need a place to hold all the random but necessary things for still life photography. And it needs to roll around so you can have by the set.
The random but necessary things have changed since digital came into being. Just judging from how many times I pull a drawer open to get something out, the digital doesn't need as many tools as did the film.
All vertical grain Douglas Fir. The drawers slide on wooden glides. I think a drawer feels so much nicer to open when it's wood on wood rather than the ball bearing engineered metal slide. The wood on wood requires attention to the opening and closing. Like life should be. Attention to the moment.
Hundreds of thousands of opening and closing I'm guessing over the years and not one tiny moment of any of the joints. The fronts are held on with through mortise and tenon the back of the drawer is a fingerjoint.
Let's go through it and how it's changed from film to digital.
The lower left side drawers held the 4x5 and 8x10 cameras, lenses, bellows, etc. What was used a hundred times a day then is never ever used today. The cameras are still folded up, the bellows are still there, the lenses sit in their slots but these drawers sit closed. Dead. Put a fork in em.
The two smaller top left drawers used to hold sheets of 8x10 Polaroid. Dead. Put a fork in em. These two drawers now hold foreign money left over from trips, my passport and random wood working tools. The opening above the drawers used to hold a 8x10 Polaroid processor. Now it's a place for the little cameras. The top of it opens and is supported by the tape shooter to the left of it.
The middle low stack of drawers was the place for the color gels, sheets of diffusion and small white, silver and gold fill cards. All of this stuff is still used but not nearly like before. I hardly ever use the color gels anymore. Small fill cards just somehow don't work the same and it's easier to open up the shadow in post.
One drawer held a foldable chart of the available gels and which drawer you'd find it in.
The lower right side had blocks, small pieces of duvateen and the large medium format camera things.
The blocks still get used but two of the drawers never get opened anymore.
Ahhhh. The top stack.. The things that still are used the most. All those ten thousand little objects. Qtips, bamboo skewers, rubber bands, solvents, glues, razor blades, tweezers, C47's, longer sticks, staple gun, string, fake ice, fake smoke, blue tac, mortician wax, the list just goes on and on. Still used, still vital today.
The top back left opens as well. It was a place to hold 4x5 and 8x10 film in their holders. Now it's a place for momentos and memory type objects. Rarely open it.
There are two slides that you pull out so the top has a support.
On each corner of the top is a trigram. Heaven, the creative.
And Taylor, since you asked to have this after I'm gone....there's one hidden compartment that houses one long object. When you find it, you'll laugh at what's inside.
Love Dad
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