Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/05/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]working in the darkroom, like woodworking, like sculpting or painting (or like jogging for goodness sakes') it's physical, dirty, inefficient-- and part of the human experience. much of the joy is in the subtle qualities of the doing. - -rei p.s. i'm a bad character to weigh in... just get me in front of a computer any my systolic goes up by 40 points. 60 hour a week is more than enough exposure for any sentient being. > From: Adam Bridge <abridge@mac.com> > > I'd like to thank everyone who replied to my request. And I'd like to thank BD > for asking the hard question: WHY? > > It IS expensive to set up a darkroom. Esp if I went the Jobo route although I > suspect I might find a used one somewhere at a reasonable price. > > I'll speak now for me: I want a darkroom because there's a direct relationship > between what I make and what I do with my hands. It's all in the time-domain. If > I want three identical prints, and there's a lot of doging and burning and other > manipulation then I have to do things the same way. So I in the darkroom I have > a work-of-hands. > > My computer work - and I have everything that BD mentioned - is not as > satisfying to me. I work on a print in the digital domain. I can make print > after print on my piezo and they will all look the same. > > It seems like the art has vanished then. I suppose you can reasonably say that > it has moved to the manipulation of Photoshop. And that's true - and yet I am > left with the feeling that the REAL art is in Photoshop as well as most of the > craft. > > There's something in the darkroom PROCESS that I like. The control. Heck I can > make my chemistry from scratch if I want to. That seems to be a fundamental part > of what I like about darkroom work - getting my hands dirty, dealing with what I > have in my mind, the imperfections of the negative (and understanding them so I > do it better when I take my next photos), watching the print develop, thinking > about it, learning what is possible. > > Maybe it's because I'm a rookie in the darkroom so every print is new and > different and a different challenge. The joy of making a mistake that leads to > something new for me to explore. > > It FEELS like art to me and when I work in the darkroom I feel like an artist. > That's why I desire a darkroom. > > Thanks for asking, BD, and for making me think about it. > > Adam Bridge - -- Rei Shinozuka shino@panix.com Ridgewood, New Jersey - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html