What’s New on the Blue Moon? (since the last blue moon)
Written by Katt Janson Merilo
It’s that time of the lunar cycle again. A blue moon rises on Portland tonight and to celebrate, we’d like to tell you what we’ve been up to since the last blue moon back in 2012. We’ve had a very good three years, and owe so much of that to the people reading along now. Thank you, as always, for supporting us and the Portland film community.
We had an Impossible visit (and are gearing up for our next in a week), Pinhole Photography Walks, many rowdy customer and staff shows (another one of which opens tomorrow), a couple Portland Art Museum brown bag lectures, an OPB Art Beat feature, an exciting monograph book from a Kickstarter venture, the first issue of our staff zine 8417, and a license to manufacture MINOX sized Spy Film.
Most importantly, though, we got to develop, print, and scan thousands of rolls of film from our customers, and put hundreds of functioning film cameras into the hands of photographic artists. It’s easy to lose track of the time when you’re doing something that cool each day.
For your enjoyment, we’ve put together some behind-the-scenes photos of what we’ve been up to.
Zeb celebrates his 10 year anniversary at Blue Moon! (Photo by Zeb Andrews) September, 2012
Some of the Blue Moon crew at Jake’s show at Powell’s. (Photo by Jason Kelley) October 2012
Zeb and Jake at the opening of their joint show, Still Live, in Vancouver. (Photo by Jason Kelley) May 2013
The current and past staff gather for a family cookout. November, 2013
The shop front in the snow, February 2014
On our first pinhole photography walk, April 2014
Jake and the Impossible guys, Kyle and Mitch, exposing instant Impossible 8×10 film, May 2014
We’re big in Japan! The Japanese magazine Popeye highlights Blue Moon Camera in its St. Johns feature, June 2014
Our OPB Art Beat feature resulted in many exciting things, including a big screen showing at Blue Sky Gallery and the cover of OPB Members’ Magazine, October 2014
Behind the scenes filming Jake and Oliver Ogden, filming the video for Jake’s Kickstarter, November 2014
Faulkner celebrates his 10 year anniversary at Blue Moon Camera! (Photo by Tom Humphrey) November, 2014
Jake and Blue at the opening of Jake’s show Contact at Newspace, April 2015
The staff publish the first issue of their own photographic zine, 8417. June, 2015
Excitement abounds as we sign our licensing deal with MINOX Germany and release Spy Film for MINOX cameras. July, 2015
Thanks for the past three years, everyone; we’ll see you with another update on the next Blue Moon.