Sometime in 2018, I was trying my hand at developing black & white film at home, and getting terrible results time after time. So, tired of ruining photos I actually cared about, I loaded up some cheap black and white film in my M6 and took a walk around the block. I shot photos of just about anything, since all I needed was a throwaway roll to test. I did this a few times until I figured out what the problem was (expired developer, oof—noob mistake). But the interesting thing was that I found myself really drawn to the photos. I was happy I'd chosen not to just shoot an entire roll of nothing, and—weirdly—the freedom of shooting without caring about the results ended up unlocking compositions I probably would never have seen if I had walked out the door to "make photographs." I was just snapping pictures for a test roll, but they ended up being kind of...interesting.

So I kept going. I eventually added color to the mix, and started collecting photos for what I imagine will be an ongoing slow-burn series focused on my neighborhood for as long as I live here. I live in Seven Corners, named after an intersection in SE Portland that has (you guessed it) seven corners. Hence the "7c." title.

Who knows what will come of these photos. Maybe nothing. But I think there is a lot of value in projects like these, that settle in over time, evolve slowly, take on new meaning as creative perspectives shift and circumstances change. Whatever happens, my favorite thing about this project will always be the accidental way it got started, and the fact that it was born from my attempt to solve a problem I never should've had in the first place.