[Leica] Antique Processes

["Peter Choy" <pmcchoy@earthlink.net>]

My college friend, now a photo editor, started doing photography with me 
when we were both freshmen.  He e-mailed me today to tell me about a current
undergraduate he knows who is now in college at the same place:


> It seems that Anya is taking a photography course and is allowed to use
> the A&A grad school darkrooms, but only for the duration of the course.
>
> So she recently went to her Stiles dean and master, to ask if the
> College could set up a darkroom for its undergrads. They replied
> something to the effect of, "We have a darkroom in the basement, but it
> hasn't been used in at least a generation." When they pried open the
> door, everything was right in place, just like Pompeii and Herculaneum,
> or King Tut’s tomb if you will. The chemistry was "old" (!) but
> everything else was apparently ready for action.
>
> [Anya] volunteered to be in charge of whatever upgrades
> and administration the place requires. So thanks to the beneficence and
> foresight of the Ancient Ones, she and her fellow Stiles kids will
> revive the near-dead, pre-21st Century craft of silver halide printing
> on campus.


My bursary job as an undergraduate -- part of the financial aid package --
was to look after the college darkroom, administer its use, keep it clean,
mix up the chemicals, etc.  At the time it was a better deal than hashing
in the dining halls.  It didn't occur to me that I would look back on this
as one of the Ancient Ones who helped carry on an antique process for
posterity!  Ah, the smell of fixer at midnight...

Thinking about it makes me feel like a million.  (Don't ask a million what.)

Peter.

P.S. On topic:  There was a shop in town that did a brisk trade in
used equipment for students.  They often sold and repurchased the same
stuff over and over again.  I could afford an old IIIg with a collapsible
Summicron.  Then as now, most others were using SLRs.