When photographers begin experimenting with film, there seems to be four stages to fully immersing yourself in the creative process. The first stage is when you first load film into your camera and begin by purely shooting. I’d call this the honeymoon stage in a film photographer’s journey – when you get hooked to firing the shutter button. The second stage in this journey is learning how to do at-home development of your film. Whether you are using a development tank , or if you are lucky enough to have access to a darkroom, being able to develop you negatives on your own is something incredibly satisfying. Scanning film is the third stage – and this is the stage that I am currently at. Being able to control the shooting, developing, and scanning/digitizing of my negatives has been one of the most rewarding processes I have learned. The fourth and final stage, however, I have not embarked on. The final stage to fully immersing yourself in your image making process with film is darkroom printing – the cherry on top that allows the details of the colors and textures within every image to be amplified.
Before I break down Ilford Delta’s latest survey on darkroom printing I thought I would give my two cents on why I haven’t jumped into darkroom printing. It’s quite a simple reason – I don’t have access to darkroom printing equipment, and I have not learned to print on my own in a darkroom yet. I’ve been lucky enough to observe professors in college use the equipment, but I was never properly trained to. In addition, now that I am out of school, access to darkrooms is pretty expensive – and so is the paper to print on. Until I am financially secure enough to spend a few thousand dollars on printing equipment to put in my own darkroom one day – I probably won’t be darkroom printing much.
When I began reading Ilford’s findings I realized that my reservations from beginning my darkroom printing journey were similar to some of the survey’s responders. Ilford’s survey was made up of 5,439 people from 87 different countries – 69% of responders were people who had printed in a darkroom before and 31% of responders were those who had not. Below is a full breakdown of those surveyed, and their relationship with printing.
Those Who Print
People who have been printing in darkrooms for awhile are purists of photography. Most of them learned to print in a darkroom in school or from close family members and friends while they were growing up. Regulars in the darkroom show great appreciation for the steps within the creative process, and draw great satisfaction from the full control they have over their image and print making process. Ilford’s data also showed that people who frequent the darkroom have quite an opinion on paper and chemical selection – which once again reflects the 360 degree control that these artists possess. Well, it’s clear that people who darkroom print regularly are purists and value their time greatly – and according to Ilford’s data, the biggest obstacle that keeps the regulars from printing more is just that, time. In order – time, expense, and space are the only things keeping the regulars from printing more.
Those Who Don’t Print
Let’s get into why people don’t darkroom print. Quite simply: learning, access or space, and price point. Pulled straight from their findings, “The biggest obstacles for those that don’t print include: Space for a darkroom (64%) and expense (34%)”. For me, here in Chicago there are only two darkrooms that are available for public access – with one being over booked all the time and one that requires a multitude of certification courses for use. For this reason, I have personally told myself that I won’t spend money on darkroom printing until I can afford quality printing equipment that I can operate in an at-home darkroom. I find myself on Youtube drooling over fellow creative’s set ups, like this one. Ilford’s study ironically reflected my sentiments almost word for word. To quote, “If cost or access to equipment was not an issue, then 67% would definitely set up a home darkroom with 24% sitting on the fence and just 9% as a definite no.”. Me!! I am part of that 67%!!
Key Findings
- Experienced darkroom users are privy to darkroom printing because they learned how to navigate a darkroom growing up; and most of their enjoyment comes from the full creative control over the image making process
- Photographers who do not darkroom print see access and expense as their main obstacles
- At-home darkrooms are sought after by both experienced printers and non-printers alike
- 86% of non-printers would try it if their main obstacle (access and expense) was addressed – which shows an eager audience ready to make the leap
Darkrooms almost became a forgotten thing of the past once the boom of digital photography took over the consumer market. It became so easy to fast track or automate every process. People decided they would trade in their film rolls for memory cards – and the need for film development/processing services dwindled.
To me, this is exactly the root of the main obstacle many film photographers including myself see in darkroom access – expense. I can only hope that the film photography community continues to bloom in the next few decades, so more children growing up in the megapixel era will be able to learn about the intricacies of film photography, processing and printing.
Shutter Hunter 