Darkroom – James Pierce
The first of three articles by James Pierce leading up to his current ‘super’ darkroom.
I’ll share the design, construction and final state of my current darkroom in a followup article; However, first I wanted to go on a journey and share the tiny space in my first house which was core to getting me regularly back into the dark, rocking trays and watching the magic of prints emerging which continues to be captivating 20+ years on from my first darkroom experience. After more than a decade of almost exclusively shooting colour film, having it scanned and printed digital I fell back down the rabbit hole which is beautiful optically printed black and white images.
Michael Gellert, Brian Murray and I had been working on a project to photograph the old CMI foundry in Horsham, and as part of that Michael made a series of 8×10 black and white negatives. I ran through a box of old Type 55 Polaroid for a bit of fun and next thing you know we were in the Darkroom Michael and Brian share in Horsham, remembering all the different ways to mess up a perfectly good print. I was hooked again, but the prospect of only being able to work in the darkroom every 2-3 months when I could make a trip to the countryside from Melbourne wasn’t very appealing, plus I was sick of loading and unloading film in a big change tent all the time, Jobo processing film in the kitchen sink … My very understanding wife was away one weekend and in the time from when she left, to the time she returned I’d made a laundry makeover to create what surely must be one of the smallest but still practical large format darkrooms possible.
The 1200mm x 1200mm room had all the basic ingredients, hot and cold water, a sink, power, ventilation fan and a folding door which blocked out most of the light. A window which was easily covered with some black out cloth, and a small extension skirt on the bottom of the folding door to make the room light tight. The left wall had as much shelf space as possible to provide chemical, film and paper storage. Enlarger lenses and negative carriers plus all the other small bits required to print. The enlarger sat on a custom plywood baseboard made to fit above the washing machine (a Bessler 4×5 MX) converted to use an Ilford 500 Multigrade Head. Paper and spare trays etc were kept under a nearby bed.
The space had to be configured, either for printing or processing – Sometimes I used an 8×10 slot processor (and archival washer of course) and sometimes I used trays. Underneath the bench on the right I built a small UV LED setup for alternative process work. I had a Jobo CPP2 which I kept in a spare room cupboard, it would sit on the bench to process film when not printing.
The space was ideal for loading and unloading double darks, processing film and then contacting printing 8×10 plus enlarging all the miniature formats as well. It’s actually very relaxing to make prints when everything is within easy reach. With careful notes it’s easy to take a straight contact print, make work prints and then visit a larger darkroom and make big enlargements periodically. Having a darkroom at home, even a tiny one is a huge advantage; It’s easy to do a quick session, load some film or process a couple of rolls without having to plan ahead, book or leave the house. Printing like most worthwhile pursuits requires practice, having even a small space and using it regularly is a real boost to your work.
