Photo Elective • Denim and a Braid

Art school self-portrait of Tina Garceau. Scanned from a print.

Here’s another Photo Elective shot by Tina Garceau of Tina Garceau! As I’ve written before, all sophomore students majoring in illustration at The Philadelphia College of Art were required to take a minor course in photography where the students would shoot and process 35mm black and white photographs. At the time, it seemed like a needlessly pricey course that stood in the way of what illustrators really wanted to do which was to draw and paint. The illustration students didn’t necessarily want to be there, and the photography students saw the illustrators as an intrusion on their territory. There was a limited amount of darkroom equipment and not a whole lot of space in that eighth floor photography department. Photography majors felt they had eternal dibs on the enlargers although we were all on the hook for tuition and darkroom fees. Arguments would invariably break out. The course was something that just had to be endured for a semester.

I found this terrific print just as I find everything which is while I was looking for something else. I found this treasure, but I never did find what I was originally looking for.