While Rachel and Maria cleared away the breakfast dishes and tidied the kitchen on Monday morning, Bethia took David to the darkroom to show him around. "I didn't often come in here, but I did have Aaron show me his developing and printing procedures once to satisfy my curiosity."
She switched on the red light and extinguished the bright one before opening a cupboard. "There are five boxes of film here." She picked one up and read the label. "Ten exposures in each, so you've plenty to play with. And here are the boxes of printing paper."
She closed the cupboard and turned on the bright light again. "Here's the camera. Its instructional booklet is here somewhere; he was very organised. Where would his logic have put it?" She pinched her chin as she thought and looked at all the boxes, at the shelf of bottles and at the stack of drawers under the counter, then she pulled open the top drawer. "I thought so. Here it is, and also the manuals for the developing tank and print-making machine."
David sat at the kitchen table examining the Kodak Folding Pocket Camera as he scanned the manual. He then more slowly read the instructions, trying things as he went along. "Seems rather simple to use." He pushed the button and folded down the front, extending the bellows, and then he adjusted the lens and shutter settings.
He looked up at Bethia. "Interesting, an American camera rather than a German one. We had German cameras in the photography club; a Voigtländer and a Goerz."
"He said he had looked at the German ones, but he chose the Kodak for its simplicity of operation and its compact design."
"From what I see so far, it appears easier to operate than the ones we had in the club. The roll film makes it easier to use than would individual plates. We can expose ten photographs before needing to refresh the camera."
A quarter hour later, Maria came over and stood behind him at the kitchen table as he reread the instructions. She kissed his neck and ran her fingers through his beard. "Have you memorised them yet?"
"Almost. I'm just looking at what it says here about taking portraits. We need a —"
"But we're not taking portraits, in case you've forgotten." She giggled. "We're doing images of body parts. An ankle and a penis."
"Yes, but the camera settings we need are similar. It says for a bust or three-quarter portrait, the subject should be six to eight feet from the camera and for a full-height portrait, eight to ten feet. It also says we need a plain, lightly coloured background, and it's best to have a source of light behind the camera."
"We can drape a sheet as background. What about using the light coming through a window?"
"That would be ideal. Soft, diffused light, rather than harsh. We'll have to experiment a bit with aperture and shutter speed settings to get the exposures correct."
"What's aperture?"
"That's the size of the opening to allow the light onto the film, and the shutter speed is the measure of how long the film is exposed to the light. The bigger the hole and the longer it's open, the more the emulsion on the film is affected by the light. The trick is in finding the balance which gives good definition to both highlights and shadows, remembering the smaller the aperture, the sharper the picture."
"Seems complex. Another thing with a lot of decisions to make."
"What I learned in Victoria is to bracket. Start by using the recommended settings for the initial shot, then do two more shots, one with a larger aperture or faster speed, the other with smaller or slower. One of the three should be better than the others. The whole thing is playing with light." He turned in his chair and swung her into his lap.
"This is more comfortable." He kissed her neck and continued. "There are ten exposures per roll of film, so unlike with a plate camera, where we can expose a shot then develop it to check the settings, here it's best to expose all ten frames. To do a single shot with roll film would waste the other nine possible exposures."
"So ten shots. With whom should we start? You or Mama?"
"It makes sense to start with me. I'm much easier to get ready than it will be for Mama, and if the exposures aren't suitable, she'd have to prepare her ankle again. Besides, there's a larger number of shots to take of me, so we can easily finish the roll."
"What shots had you in mind?" She reached up and stroked his beard. "Seems you've also been thinking of this."
"My idea is to do covered, both dangling and erect, plus the same with the head uncovered. That's four of a non-mutilated one. Then there's the one pretending it's a circumcised erection. We might even try to make a dangling one look circumcised."
"I was also thinking of a picture of the frills under your head. We've seen clearly those are your most sensitive parts, but both Mama and Tante said they're cut away with circumcisions. That's one of the things I want to point out in the essay. Explain just how much is destroyed."
He nodded his head. "That makes good sense. I think we're ready to start. I'll get a roll of film." He tapped the manual. "It says in here it can be loaded into the camera in the light. No need for a darkroom or working by feel in a bag. We'll do it up in the bedroom."
They hung a sheet from the bed canopy to serve as background, then moved a small table to seven feet from it. He adjusted the lens, the shutter and the focus distance, placed the camera on the table, and showed Maria how to use the viewfinder and release the shutter.
"We'll start with covered and dangling." He undressed and stood in front of the sheet.
"Turn a little to the left. A little more. That's good. That shows it much better." She composed the image and pushed the plunger.
"That was a fiftieth of a second." He stepped to the camera and clicked the dial to twenty-five. "This is the time setting. We'll do a twenty-fifth of a second next. This key is used to advance the film. Watch this little window as I turn it — we're watching for 2 to appear. There it is. We're now set for the second exposure." He went back to the sheet, Maria composed the image and released the shutter.
"Move the lever across to one hundred, advance the film to 3, then shoot again." He heard the click. "That's the first pose done. Next, we'll do the bare head series. Leave the settings where they are, advance the film to 4, compose and shoot."
He stood waiting for her to push the release. "Something wrong?"
"I've made my adjustments." She giggled and pointed. "You have to make yours."
He looked down and laughed, then pulled the foreskin back and let it gather behind the ridge of his head. "Is that better?"
After Maria had finished the three exposures, she stepped over to him and knelt. "Let me work on getting this to pose for the next series." He responded quickly to her tongue and lips, and she was soon back at the camera for exposures seven, eight and nine.
"Turn a bit more to your left. This will look much better in profile. Show that graceful curve. There, that's good. Perfect angle. Stand still." She shot, adjusted the speed, advanced the film and shot again, then repeated for the third shot.
"Stay there. I want to change the camera distance for the tenth shot." She moved the table back two feet, looked at the viewfinder and nodded, advanced the film and set the shutter on one fiftieth. "Turn your head to me and smile. Right hand on your hip. Give me a hungry look. I want something to help keep me warm while you're gone. That's perfect. Still." She clicked the shutter.
"That's the end of the roll," he said. "Wind the key until it turns freely. That'll wrap the protective paper around the exposed film, so it's safe to open the back and remove it, ready for the next step."
She looked down at him. "I think the next step is getting you to fit into your trousers so we can go downstairs." She put the camera on the table and knelt.