Luis Rodriguez & Photography

It Calls You Back, Chapter 9

"I asked for a writing/photography job.  I showed them a few things I'd published - in my high school newspaper, for Cal State's MEChA newspaper, a letter to the editor.  They seemed impressed.  People poised towards writing were rare finds.  They also asked if I'd work the darkroom, developing film and operating a halftone camera, a large mechanical contraption that resided photos and made halftone reproductions for the layout editors.  I said sure, I wanted to learn.

...

With a camera and a notepad, I covered car accidents, gang shootings, weddings, and graduations.  I overworked at this job, which paid hundreds of dollars less a week than I had made in industry.  As the only photo developer at EGP, I also spent many hours a week in the darkroom, set up next to the layout room.  I developed rolls of black-and-white film in canisters.  We used the old method with chemicals - developer, fixer, running water.  I made contact sheets that Jonathan used to pick out the pictures I then developed for the newspapers." 

-Luis Rodriguez