[Leica] Darkroom depression

[AlastairF@bhs.grampianshealth.org.au]

O me miserum,

All this talk of the Darkroom being dead, just as my long awaited, dreamed
of and planned studio/darkroom becomes a reality. I first started
photography in the home darkroom of a professional photographer whose mother
could not bear to see the room unused. Richard and I toiled away for hours,
perfecting a very imperfect system of development, learned mainly from trial
and error (like the day I washed our most precious film in hot water and
watched the emulstion slide down the sink). When that closed/became a junk
room again, I managed to convince my mother to share her laundry, and made
quite a neat darkroom fold out cupboard arrangement. When I left the nest,
(and mother changed the locks) I was confined mainly to crawling under the
sheets and blankets to load film -- very uncomfortable in summer. On
graduation, I managed to build a darkroom into the bathroom. It was a nice
set up, but the steam from the shower was always a problem. Next house and a
dedicated small darkroom -- dreams coming true, but the work load of post
graduate study made sure it was never used, and I moved out the day I
stopped study. Now firmly planted, I have had 7 years of digital darkroom
misery, and finally the mighty plans are about to come to fruition. ATL
Autolab 3, the mother of all water temperature control panels, a wet area
huge sink, an exhaust system to suck the rooms air out and over 15 times per
hour, and a beautiful enlarger bench, AND YOU ARE TELLING ME ITS ALL DEAD. O
me miserum

Cheers

Alastair