cherry hill. 400tx. fm2. rodinal. may 15.

Cherry Hill is a neighborhood within Seattle. Last week, I commuted there from Olympia for a week to be with my wife, who had surgery at the Swedish Cherry Hill Hospital.

It is an older neighborhood that is no longer well taken care of. However, it is also being renewed by replacing the old homes with new homes, apartments, and condominiums. Work on the infrastructure is occurring throughout the area.

It is also plagued by graffiti or tagging, as it is called on the street. I doubt that anything will be successful in limiting it. It has become a political issue and an issue of whether the “tagging” is art.

Most graffiti is signed by its creators, or ‘taggers,’ as they are called on the street. Here are the signatures of five individuals. Thirty years ago, when I lived in Los Angeles, I appeared in Juvenile Court with one of my sons. He had been arrested for tagging an auto shop. The Judge told me I was partly responsible for not controlling my son and instead of a fine required us both to repaint the front of the business. Tagging signatures are usually not their real names and are known only by other taggers. My son’s tag name was ‘Hope’.

These images were created with the Nikon FM2, with the Nikon 50mm Series E 50mm F1.8 Lens. I developed the film in Rodinal (1:25) for 7 minutes, agitating every 30 seconds. I scanned the negatives with the PrimeFilmXEs using Silverfast.