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This first posting, while mildly gratuitous, effectively impacts home-page layout while site founder decides, ultimately, if he likes the look.
Back in 2019, a fella launched a website to jump start the creativity of two writers. Why? Because those two writers, back in 2005, did something pretty cool. Bogged down by their day gigs reporting on restaurant operations, finance and economics, they started a blog. Which, at that time, was still a novel thing to do. They did it in part because their employer continued to scoff at the “Internet” and “websites” to publish stuff.
They picked the just-budding online food genre (albeit very loosely), ‘cause they already knew a lot about it. Under pseudonyms, they wrote and wrote. Incongruous restaurant reviews, hamfisted cooking exploits and mishaps, and social commentary that may or may not have been chemically enhanced.
Believe it or not, that blog, being in the era that it was, attracted some attention. Like, local news linked to it. Then, CNN linked to a few of its posts. Then “professional” newsie folks reached out via the contact email to ask if the “contributors” would like to write for, y’know, their “established” media outlets.
When informed of the ruse, they all were like, “Goddam, man,” in a envious, but defeated tone. Because those who called didn’t want to fuck themselves by starting websites under pseudonyms, but wished they could, because they knew the writing was on the wall regarding “traditional” media. But, they were nice and kept the writers’ IDs secret.
Unfortunately, the two trail blazers didn’t quite grasp their trail-blazing. They didn’t dive into how to monetize their efforts. In part, because they worked in a niche journalism environment that continued to pay them half-decently despite the industry upheaval. And their employer finally came around to the reality of the Internet.
So.
Fast forward to 2019, when much had changed in the two anonymous writers’ lives. Career changes, city swaps, upheaval. That first blog mostly abandoned. Then one of them (me) has that idea mentioned in the very first sentence of this scintillating blog screed. He gets it going, then, y’know, pandemic. While it sputtered along, that website never found its groove.
If you’ve hung around this long, read the rest. I’ll be quick, with the help of an abrupt change to the first-person narrative. You’re reading this post on one of two (yes, two) website/blogs. Because, well, that’s how things shaped up these last two years. If you’re reading this here on Darkroom Detritus, well, you’re here because you’re most likely a photography enthusiast, mostly focussed on that good ol’ film habit that is now being absorbed by hipsters and driving up the price of gear. (Which is NOT to say that those hipsters aren’t welcome here, heck, we’ve gotta drive up the “clicks.”) Also archived to drive clicks is photography-related content from that second, somewhat short-lived website.
The other website, on the verge of launch, is other stuff—an online “portfolio” of sorts, because that’s what’s expected these days to make a living as a consultant.
As it says on the homepage: “Explore, view, read, engage.” Hopefully you find something meaningful here.
