In the beginning…
Hi! Hello! Salutations & Greetings! I’m Erin Nelson Gutierrez, and I’m your Lab Tech Extraordinaire here at the New Orleans Film Lab.
This has been a dream of mine for a very long time. Starting a film processing business seems like an odd dream, but for me, it’s something I’ve been talking about for years. My husband will tell you I’ve been talking about it since the day we started talking to each other.
This all started with a family trip through Florida to Disney World. My grandmother had gifted me a photography book kit that came with a fantastic plastic 35mm camera. I read through the 20-page book that was mostly photos that were never achievable with the kit camera, but that didn’t stop me from trying. I used that little plastic piece of you know what so much, that my dad questioned why I never asked for another roll of film. I did not have the nuance of limited exposures at the time, and my dad tried to break my heart gently by opening the camera in the dark to show me the film had spanned in the camera. It wasn’t devastating to me, but it sucked that my little camera had limits.
From there, my dad taught me how to use his treasured Pentax MX. He went as far as letting me stay up one night to photograph a lunar eclipse. This only fueled my passion for photography. In college, having the ability to develop my film and prints by hand only made the creative fires burn brighter. This is around the time I got a job with Bennett’s Camera in Metairie, LA. I was a photofinishing tech. There, I was able to explore more photography, grow my skills & network, and rocket myself into a photography degree program with the Kansas City Art Institute.
At KCAI, my little fire that was cooking pretty well on its own was now a bonfire. I was processing color films, playing with a method called souping, and coming into my own. While I feel like I didn’t find my calling in photography straight out of school, I knew I was going to need more time to figure it out. Most people don’t find their dream job straight out of school, and I was okay with this. I had to grow up a little more.
And here we are. Seven years later, I still can’t get the thought of processing film out of my mind. So, with the encouragement of my husband, I decided to take the plunge. He says every time I talk about it, I light up.
In the pursuit of happiness, come along on this adventure of film processing with me.