Darkroom

Film photography has always been seen to me as this raw beauty of an art form; an art form slowly demising due to our technologically developing society. In result I decided to go back to the basics. I picked an old Chinon thirty five millimeter camera and a role of black and white film. It took me nearly three months to finish the role. With film I found myself much more indecisive, the ability to instantly delete a photo when thought to be unsatisfactory was no longer available. At the same time it was most likely for the best.


Jose, started his photography career in 1950, he was 11 years old cleaned the floors of a darkroom studio. Today his carried out his passion for photography by opening up his own school. The two room studio hides away over the plaza de San Martin. The walls fainted paint reflects 1970s puke green. The first time we met I came to inquire about classes. We ended up talking for nearly two hours about photography. The following day I came with my role of film and photographic paper. The first day was spent developing my negatives. Sadly upon their development I found out that my camera had broken somewhere along the process. The role originally had 30 frames, on my 15th the frames images began to overlap as the film would not role. As big as a disappointment that was I still can’t explain to you the excitement of seeing those first 15 photos even if it was only a negative. I was so anxious to start developing that very moment but was faced with the fact that my negatives had to dry for 24 hours. So we called it a day and sat down to drink mate. Students passed in and out to say hello to Jose. I got to meet some very interesting people even a young guy that had worked in the ski resorts in Aspen.

The next day was hot even with the fan. It didn’t help our case that all the windows were closed to shut out the light. Jose helped me measure out the chemicals and place them into their proper bins. I cut various sheets of paper in to small squares to practice exposure times. After exposing my photos on an enlarger what is similar to a slide projector, I began dipping the paper into different chemicals. First the “revelado” for minute and 30 seconds, this is the most exciting moment for me as it is the first time your image appears on paper. Second the “detenido” for about 20 seconds at this point you can expose the picture to white light. Lastly “fijado” be sure that excess liquid are eliminated to ensure that there is no mixture of chemicals. I reproduced my first image three times with different filters increasing and decreasing the contrast. My first photo was a child in the arms of his father that I had taken downtown one day. I’m not going to lie I was overwhelmingly proud by the end of the day. I had always had more respect for film photographers and now it only became justified more.