I Miss Contact Sheets

In 1986 I photographed one of my favorite bands, Wednesday Week, at a place called the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, California, which is on the coast between Los Angeles and San Diego. I prefer taking pictures of bands using whatever stage light there is in the club. Back then I had a Pentax ME Super and I didn't even own a flash unit for it. But the Belly Up Tavern lights just weren't quite right. Wednesday Week's lead singer, Kristi Callan, also had a Pentax camera, and loaned me her flash, which I used for these pictures. Kristi is currently in a cool band called Dime Box Band. That's when she's not pretending to be Robin Zander.

On this California trip I was staying in Hollywood with two friends, Curtis and Marsha Hawkins. Curtis worked for A&M Records and Marsha worked at a photo lab. She had the film processed for me and made the contact sheet you see here (click on it to see a larger version).


In 2001 I put some of my Wednesday Week photos online. I recently updated and moved the website. While looking through some old photos of the band I came upon this contact sheet and decided to scan it. It had to clean it up a bit, but I think the scan came out pretty well.

So I guess digital has almost wiped away our beloved analog contact sheets. I suppose you could make one with a graphics program, but that would be cheating. Another reason to pine for the days of film in this new photographic world of camera phones, too much Photoshop and HDR.