Editing the images

My Story

When I was documenting the lives of the California Roma in the 1990s, I was a staff photographer working at the Long Beach Press-Telegram newspaper. During the first three years of the project, I spent all my days off, holidays and vacation days photographing Romani families. Yet, there were events and trips that I could not attend. Consequently, I came up with a plan to spend more time on the project. In 1993 I quit the newspaper job and moved into a studio apartment, set up a darkroom in the kitchen and started a freelance photography business to support myself. I was living my dream and had time to travel to weddings and spend more time going to other parts of California to meet new Romani families.

During this time, I spent about five days a week taking photographs and two days processing the film and printing the pictures. I would print the photos from sunrise to late into the night. When I got tired of being alone, I would go out and take more photographs.

I shot between 5 to 10 rolls of film per day and I was so busy back then that I did not have the time to look closely at all of the negatives. There were many hidden gems that I missed, which I did not find until I went through all my binders during the Covid lockdown. The cover photo with the two boys (Sonny and George) and my favorite photo "Heels" that is on the back of the book had never been printed. My original edit of 63 photographs grew to more than a hundred.

Never printed images that I discovered in my edits in 2020 and 2021.

Scanning and Photoshop

I scanned the prints using an Epson Perfection V850 Pro scanner that I borrowed from a friend. After testing various scanning software including the Epson software that came with the scanner, I found that SilverFast 8 produced the best results.

I used Photo Mechanic 6.2 to help narrow my edit and Adobe Photoshop to adjust brightness, add contrast and remove dust and scratches. Photojournalism standards prohibit the use of digital software to alter photographs like removing or adding objects.

I used the Bookwright app to sequence and pair the images

The Giant Puzzle

The final process involved selecting the images that provoked emotion were “timeless” and partnered well with another image. I used an App called BookWright to pair, sequence, and print out the partnered images that I spread out on a large table. I spent months staring at the pictures and rearranging the pages but felt that I need help from a colleague who understood my vision. My friend Beatrice de Gea helped me solve the giant puzzle of sequencing and pairing the images. There were small changes afterward as I kept finding more negatives in the binders that I felt made the book stronger.

Difficult Choices

There were many images that I had to leave out of the book. For example, I needed to choose between the two images of the boys playing on the roof. I chose the top image because it had the mother in it and she appears unaware of what the boys were doing. That image has a little more tension and tells a story. The BookWright app is extremely helpful for pairing images. I took screenshots of the pairs and printed them out to get a visual display of how they would look in the book.

Hidden: Life with California's Roma Families

California Roma Photography Book