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Author Topic: The Worst Darkroom I Ever Worked In  (Read 3510 times)

RSL

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The Worst Darkroom I Ever Worked In
« on: August 28, 2010, 11:38:29 am »

The thread "discussing" the importance or lack of importance of equipment got shut down for obvious reasons, but I'd like to add one more point to that discussion -- all the while hoping we can keep it at a discussion level.

In 1953 I was flying F84s out of the K2 airbase at Taegu, Korea. We lived in abandoned barracks that had been hastily constructed by the Japanese during WW II. As a friend said: "You could throw a cat through the wall." I've included an example of a relaxing evening at home.

After the truce, though we were given "additional duties" to help keep us busy when we weren't flying training and proficiency missions we had time on our hands. Three of us were rabid photographers and we decided to build a darkroom. We found some lumber, partitioned off a bit of the end of one barracks and built counters. With the help of some "training" flights to Japan we bought and installed a couple film tanks, an enlarger, safelight, timer and trays, and then had to figure out how to get water into the place. Finally we located a cast-off, damaged, F84 tip-tank -- the kind of tank that goes on the ends of the wings. We built a cradle outside our darkroom, conned a forklift driver into bringing around and installing our tip-tank, cut a deal with the water truck driver to keep the tank full, cut a hole through the wall (earlier, we'd had to patch a number of them, but we hadn't planned very far ahead), ran a pipe through the wall and put a faucet on the end of it. Of course we didn't have a way to drain the water, so we had to wash our film and prints, and clean up the trays in a detached latrine across the compound.

Our biggest problem was temperature control. During the summer we developed film in temperatures far higher than recommended, and in winter temperatures far lower than anyone thought could produce satisfactory results. We were able to con the base photo lab out of a bunch of outdated paper and we used that in developer, stop, and fix that often was way outside the temperature limits specified by Kodak.

Yet I still have boxes of negatives and small prints from that period along with contact sheets, and even though the quality leaves something to be desired, the good pictures are still good. When B&W magazine prints my Spotlight award 2010 portfolio entry sometime during the coming year you'll be able to see whether or not you agree.
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: The Worst Darkroom I Ever Worked In
« Reply #1 on: August 28, 2010, 12:46:04 pm »

I can't match that, but here's my own worst.
In college, where I first learned darkroom work, I got spoiled by having the use of real darkrooms. But eventually I graduated and lived at my parents' home, where there wasn't a darkroom. I could acquire film developing tanks and trays OK, and I had a used Speed Graphic with one lens, so I bought a "Graflarger" kit, which consisted of a copy stand for the SG and a cold-light head with slot for negative that went on in place of the ground glass. I covered the cellar windows as well as I could, but did all my processing in the evening, when I could have what a friend called "free dark." There was electricity available and a laundry sink with hot and cold running water (luxury!), but my temperature control consisted of poking a finger into the mix to see if it felt about right (later I invested in a thermometer).

My biggest triumph in that "darkroom" was printing two humungously huge prints (for those days): 16x20"!!! Of course I had no trays that big, so I developed them by putting the exposed print on a relatively clean part of the concrete floor and sloshing it with a large sponge soaked in Dektol. Once it looked pretty well developed, I sloshed it for a while with fixer on another sponge. But they were too big to wash in the laundry sinks, so I had to carry the fixed prints up to the second floor to wash them in the bathtub. Amazingly, after fifty years the two prints are still in fine shape, no yellowing, fading, or fixer stains.

My present (unused for several years, alas) darkroom was built largely by a commercial portrait photographer friend who also had professional carpentry skills. I assisted him in building a room in our basement, including framing, sheetrock, electricity, and plumbing. I had by then built a 3'x8" sink of marine plywood, coated and sealed with Epoxy, and I had been given a thermostatic mixing valve by another photographer. Much different and vastly more efficient than the earlier one.

Eric

P.S. The image you posted could use a little spotting, but looks good otherwise. I'm looking forward to your piece in B&W.
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Vuurtoren

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Re: The Worst Darkroom I Ever Worked In
« Reply #2 on: August 28, 2010, 01:51:10 pm »

I am terrible with remembering names - darn it - but who was it that put negatives through the stop and wash in a helmet and hung them to dry on trees (after developer of course), the war photographer of WW11? 

Chris
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DarkPenguin

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Re: The Worst Darkroom I Ever Worked In
« Reply #3 on: August 28, 2010, 02:00:51 pm »

The one that had the stop bath next to the concentrated stop bath with which I nearly melted my hands from my body.
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Joe Behar

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Re: The Worst Darkroom I Ever Worked In
« Reply #4 on: August 28, 2010, 02:43:54 pm »

I am terrible with remembering names - darn it - but who was it that put negatives through the stop and wash in a helmet and hung them to dry on trees (after developer of course), the war photographer of WW11? 

Chris

Robert Capa?
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RSL

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Re: The Worst Darkroom I Ever Worked In
« Reply #5 on: August 28, 2010, 03:19:39 pm »

I am terrible with remembering names - darn it - but who was it that put negatives through the stop and wash in a helmet and hung them to dry on trees (after developer of course), the war photographer of WW11? 

Chris

Chris, I'm not sure either, but it might have been Gene Smith. He was right in the middle of the Pacific war until he got wounded. You can see a bunch of his stuff at http://www.life.com/image/51511847/in-gallery/23016.
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Vuurtoren

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Re: The Worst Darkroom I Ever Worked In
« Reply #6 on: August 28, 2010, 05:34:18 pm »

Robert capa or eugene smth, now I remember.  But not which one, never mind.  But thanks for reminding me.  Also for the time life site.
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What we see and what we are looking at are often two very different things.

Rob C

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Re: The Worst Darkroom I Ever Worked In
« Reply #7 on: August 30, 2010, 04:35:39 am »

None of those.

I have him on a DVD and when I get round to it, will jot down his name. He was a full-time soldier in the European theatre of war, not a civvy, and he did indeed sometimes do his deving in helmets, hanging the wet film onto trees. He was officially given a huge Graphic(?) but opted to buy his own Argus in order to stay both sane and competitive. Found him. Tony Vaccaro. He used four helmets, and the films were destroyed by the US Army because they showed dead GIs; this was done in June of 1944. Funny how showing dead Germans was okay... equality not even in death.

On camera, he is far more entertaining than any of the others I have watched; he recounts his shoot with Picasso, and how the painter tried to pull this pose, then the other and then yet more stock ones. All the time the shooter waited, fumbled with his camera, and when Picasso asked him what was wrong, he said the thing was broken. At that moment Pic relaxed and dropped the poses he'd picked up from those celebrity snappers of the day, and the chap got his shot!

Like I do, he seems to sport the remains of a pony.

Love this site: allows me to catch an occasional moment of one-upmanship!  Forgiven?

;-)

Rob C
« Last Edit: August 30, 2010, 05:03:43 am by Rob C »
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BernardLanguillier

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Re: The Worst Darkroom I Ever Worked In
« Reply #8 on: August 30, 2010, 06:11:37 pm »

I used to have to darken the whole living room of my small Tokyo suburbian flat.

Setting up the whole thing would take more than one hour. The room had no air-conditioning which ensured that the temperature would never drop below 35C during the summer month.

Considering the time it took to set up the whole thing, darkroom work had to be a full day job... needless to say I ended up having many photographs printed by a pro lab.

Although it was fun, my first pigment ink Epson printer looked like having been shipped straight from heaven. :)

Cheers,
Bernard

RSL

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Re: The Worst Darkroom I Ever Worked In
« Reply #9 on: August 31, 2010, 09:23:52 pm »

Love this site: allows me to catch an occasional moment of one-upmanship!  Forgiven?
Rob C

Forgiven! I remember hearing or reading that story somewhere, but I don't think I ever knew to whom it referred. I guess I always figured it was Gene Smith. Thanks, Rob.
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tom b

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Re: The Worst Darkroom I Ever Worked In
« Reply #10 on: September 08, 2010, 01:04:01 am »

The worst darkroom I worked in was an outside toilet. You know the type they had before sewerage came in. The toilet was no longer used as we had an updated bathroom in the house we were renting. The area was less than 2x2 metres square and was dusty and dirty. Power came from an extension chord. The enlarger was placed on a board over the loo. Running water was of the wrong kind. The darkroom could only be used after dark and had to be set up each time as there wasn't a lock on the door. In those days an enlarger was a valuable piece of equipment ,compared to today when it's hard to give one away. Cold in winter, a late night's effort in summer. I'm definitely a fan of the digital revolution.

Cheers,
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Tom Brown
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