This was a trip down memory lane! It’s been a while since the film photography class I took in junior year of high school, and as frustrating as that class was at times, this was a welcome return. Thanks Calvin and thanks Nell! You don’t realize you miss that chemical smell till you’re back in the darkroom realizing you don’t know which tongs go where.
Needless to say, this ‘trip’ was to a photography darkroom. Trip is in quotes because we just went down to the basement of Dana where the biggest (and currently the only operational) darkroom on campus is. Still, it was a great time! It’s a much nicer darkroom than the one at my old high school, which lacked a real door and film reeling room (we used the connected boiler room instead). Since we understandably didn’t come in with film to put in the enlargers, instead we did mostly solar printing. I don’t actually know if it’s called that when you’re using the enlarger, if there’s a word specifically for laying objects on photo paper and exposing them to light in a darkroom setting it escapes me. Anyway, we were able to get a lot of variety in subject matter with a combination of random items from the print shop outside and old film that was in the darkroom when we got there. Since I’m taking a printmaking class and happened to have a transparency of my solar plate work in the print shop, I printed it on photo paper as well, which was neat! All and all it was great to be back in the darkroom again, it makes me want to take another film photography class.
As an aside for Agnes students and staff, did you know we technically have three darkrooms on campus? beyond the operational one in Dana, there’s a very small one in the Bradley Observatory. It’s not set up for photo developing right now but I think it has a hammock in it if you’re an astronomy student and want to nap while you’re waiting for it to stop raining on the SARA telescopes. There was also intended to be a darkroom open for student use in Alston, but after years of disuse it is now the prayer room, and no longer has the revolving door to trap light. The more you know!
