We are getting rid of our copy camera and dark room at work. The camera is a great big industrial thing that takes up a whole room. I must say that I'm just a little sad, because with it goes a bunch of skills that I've developed over time. I already regret it but developing film takes chemicals and they become hazardous waste. I can do things with this camera that I can't do on the computer. Not only that, a camera becomes kind of personal. Like an instrument. You learn ways to make it sing for you. Also, it's just nice working in a dark room. It was a safe place where magical things happened. I always felt lucky to be able to work in a darkroom.They are letting me keep the glass. It was used to focus and tweek the object before you exposed the film. The camera is so good that you don't really have to worry about focus or size, but I used it a lot. One time I broke it and it was really expensive to have it replaced. Far more than the camera is worth now. I felt really bad when that happened. The glass is a cool industrial object in it's own right and in a black metal frame. I can think of a number of things to do with it. But I'll probably just hang it on the wall or in the window of my studio. It's work is now done. Here is a detail of it. It's kind of hard to take a photo of it. I spent a lot of time looking into this fragile thing. I'm very glad to have it now.
2 comments:
I absolutely loved working in a darkroom when I was taking photography classes.
There's something mystical, magical, warm, safe, and "homey" about darkrooms.
Ahh, the things I would do had I only the money . . .
It's funny because there's also something toxic about them too.
I'm going to hate to see it go. When I say safe, in this case I mean nobody can bother you.
I have an enlarger and everything to have my own black and white darkroom in my basement if I want. But it's going to be harder and harder to get chemicals, paper and film. Kodak stopped making B&W print paper from what I heard.
Post a Comment