[Leica] Advice needed: Should I set up a darkroom or not?

[dpost at triad.rr.com (Dan Post)]

bill harting wrote:

> Sure, set up a darkroom if you want to. You'll be committing yourself 
> to many hours alone in the dark, and, if you're lucky, you'll receive 
> satisfaction from creating unique photographs, and from the fact that 
> you are practicing, successfully, an art many others have, and 
> continue to practice (diminishing group that it may be).
>
> There will be plenty of time to scan your prints for reproduction, 
> and, if you find working with computers agreeable, to learning and 
> practicing the post-processing that is a part of digital photography. 
> Plenty of equipment to mess around with in either case, and plenty of 
> skills to master.
>
> For myself, I find the time I spend alone in the darkroom (with music 
> or without) a gift of time away from the intensity of the world 
> outside, where computers live.
>
> bill h
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard" 
> <richard-lists@imagecraft.com>
> To: <lug@leica-users.org>
> Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2004 4:30 AM
> Subject: [Leica] Advice needed: Should I set up a darkroom or not?
>
>
>> The last time I used a real darkroom was when I was in HS doing B&W 
>> literally in the apartment's bathroom. I was really happy that a few 
>> years ago I got a scanner, inkjet printer and photoshop, and after a 
>> couple years of fighting with color management, I am getting decent 
>> prints from the system. All these times, setting up a wet darkroom 
>> isn't even under consideration because there just isn't enough space 
>> in the garage. Last year I got the Jobo CPE-2 and now I am shooting 
>> 99% slides, and I scan the slides in with the rest of the workflow 
>> pretty much the same as if I start with digital capture
>>
> (snip)
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>
SET IT UP! You'll either hate it, and quickly quit the field.... or 
you'll love it, and then ask yourself why you even asked to begin with!
I continue mine- partly because I waited almost 20 years to get another 
one in my house, and I ain't partin' with it! The other part is that I 
don't think that silver prints will ever die. Why? I remember reading 
that when Dauguerre, et al, popularized the photographic image, there 
was an outcry that painting was dead! Art would never be the same- yada- 
yada- yada.  Bullspit! I see more places selling artist supplies now 
than I do selling darkroom stuff. There are still a dedicated group of 
people out there making Dauguerrotypes- albeit they may be a bit brain 
damaged from the mercury fumes, and a larger group of really dangerous 
folk still doing wet plates- there seems to be a resurgeance! Do a web 
search- even though they are retro to a fault, some actually have 
websites! I also continue because you do find time for yourself- the Zen 
of being one with the smell of the fixer, the beep of the timer, the act 
of creation! ( IT' S ALIVE!)  :o)
I think that as long as there are museums out there showing the works of 
the 'masters'- of photography, that is, there will be students of art 
who try to emulate their heros! You still see painting students copying 
the masters, or emulating their style. I for one would love to master 
Karsh's form of portraits, and I am sure that for many years to come, 
that there will be those who find that the silver-gelatin print has many 
subtle differences that cannot be matched with digital. That's my two 
cents worth!