My Life in Photos: RIP Espresso Vivace

    Espresso Vivace is still fully operational, and their coffee is just as good as always - the best in Seattle in my opinion.  The best anywhere, really.  They started out as a coffee stall on Broadway, but as they grew in popularity they moved into a beautiful, historic brick building a few blocks away.  This building was razed in order to make way for the new light rail tunnel station, which I approve of, but I do wish the Vivace bricks didn't have to come down.  I spent countless hours studying Arabic in that cafe, and I genuinely miss it.  I did take several pictures of the building in various stages of demolition, and I knew that the building would be missed.
     As for the photo itself, this was taken using the redscale technique.  Redscale is the term used for shooting on the back of color film.  Making redscale film is really easy - you unspool the film in a darkroom or a changing bag, cut it off a few inches from the canister, flip it upside down, and tape it back onto the remaining film stub.  Rewind the film (leaving the small tail, of course, to load into your camera) and the rest is business as usual.  Need a more scientific explanation?  The emulsion layer that is sensitive to red light is on the bottom of the emulsion material, with the blue layer on top of it and a filter in between to block blue light from exposing the red layer, as the red layer is also sensitive to blue light.  When you shoot on the back of the film, the red layer is exposed, but the blue layer underneath remains unexposed due to the filter layer between red and blue. How about a non-scientific explanation?  When you shoot on this film, it magically turns everything to shades of red, purple, yellow, and orange.  In my 3rd grade art class, we were told that these were called "warm colors." I guess 3rd grade art lessons do help you in your adult life.

Espresso Vivace Remnants
Taken with Holga 35BC on the back of C-41 film