What about the film edge…

You will notice on some of the film images you can see part of the raw film edge which includes type of film, edge numbers, and notch codes. Why did I and other photographers do this? Well it’s the truth, by showing this its proof that nothing was cropped or deleted and the photographer is showing their skill or honesty with the camera at that decisive moment. Some contemporary photographers began doing this in the late 70s, Richard Avedon and Annie Leibovitz are some of the more famous. During my formative years in college and beyond cropping was not permitted and considered a cop-out or dishonest. Most photographers did not include the raw film edge and that included me, I never gave it a thought and considered it sloppy darkroom technique. Currently we are way beyond that and I must admit now including in almost all my scans. There is still a part of me that finds it distracting for certain images and that’s why it’s been cropped out. If you would like me to crop out of a print that you order please let me know. Also, keep in mind that the raw edge is not perfect, the film can shift in the holder making uneven borders and most noticeable the “grip marks” clips that hold the film in place during machine processing have left teeth marks into the image area. I could easily photoshop them out, but there’s something I like about them, again truth and honesty.