Where it all Started

Recently, I was corresponding with a friend, who mentioned that they were considering a career change and perhaps going back to school, to The Vancouver Film School, actually. As the discussion progressed, they asked about my having an analogue darkroom, here, in my beyond rustic, existence, on the farm. I, currently, am living, a less than modern existence here, relying on a wood stove for heat and for cooking,while trying to renovate the farm, in general and the house, in particular. Although I have all, or most of the components and the room where I will put them, I do not, at the moment, have the darkroom set up. However, the question, brought me back to, my beginnings in photography and the deep role, that, black and white, has played in my career.

 My first exposure to the medium, was through my grandfather, who was a professional photographer and a raconteur of tall tales, in London and later Toronto. Pop, had a darkroom, where he mixed all his own chemicals, many from scratch, stored his photography gear and spent countless hours, making prints or developing film. He had deeply, walnut, stained fingers, both from the chemicals and from smoking and I can vividly remember those fingers processing prints through, the many chemical baths involved. As I grew older, I  went on assignments with him and later, worked, beside him, in the darkroom, producing the images, he had seen. From him,I acquired a love of photography, especially, black and white and a deeply rooted discipline, for the producing of images on film. He always used large format cameras, considering, until very late in life, that even 2 1/4 square cameras,were, strictly, for amateurs and 35mm, to be a toy. Although, the rest of his life, was less than regimented, his photography was very much, well ordered and precise. He always believed, that everything, was in the negative and that if, you did not have what you needed, in the camera, you simply had nothing. I often wonder what he would make of this nonsense, we call digital capture?

For Pop, the negative or the transparency was everything. Oh yes, he could manipulate them, at least the negatives, to try and save a mistake or an accident, but only as a last resort. When I was allowed to shoot something, it was always with the proviso, not to waste film. When I finally went out on my own, I carried that proviso with me, as a guiding and guardian angel. Although, I adopted the 35mm format as my format of choice, I strived, never to waste a frame. Everything I needed was in my negatives and most, were properly exposed and detailed, in both shadows and highlights. I simply carried the large format discipline forward, to the 35mm frame. The results, have never let me down. Where many photographers expected to get 10 or 20 good images on a 36 exposure roll of film, I routinely got 32 or 33, if not 36. I never approached the medium, with a shotgun approach, shoot a lot and capture a little. For me every image was important and wasting film was, a waste of time and of the moment. Over time, I came to realize that, all of my mentors and inspirations, shot the same way, from Bob Capa, to W.Eugene Smith, through Neil Newton, to Ansel Adams and Tim Page, they all counted every frame as being important. Of course, they had wasted frames and of course, so did I, but not intentionally. But, I digress, somewhat, from the thesis here, that of black and white photography and the analogue darkroom.

When ever possible, I shot black and white and I processed all my own film and made my own prints. Neil Newton, perhaps my greatest mentor, even beyond my grandfather, was the penultimate black and white printer and from him,I learned to make beautiful full range prints, even from my poorest negatives. I always considered myself to be, and excellent printer, but from Neil I learned to be better. He lives in BC now and apparently has embraced the digital world with a passion. We are no longer close, something I do not understand and deeply regret, but I can thank him, nevertheless, for teaching me the beauty, that is the darkroom.

During my career, I have spent more hours, in the dark, in more ways than one, than I care to remember and yet I regret none of those,in the darkroom. Watching prints evolve out of the developer,the smell of the chemicals, permeating the air and every pore in your body,somehow, brings the process full circle and serves to renew your faith in yourself. Certainly processing a large print order is a long and tedious process, that can often see you working for hours at a time. But,in the end, it all becomes a worthwhile experience, cathartic, perhaps, in providing a sense of completion, to a project. On the other hand, there are the sessions to produce personal images, that can and do, last much longer. I can remember going into my darkroom, many times, in an evening, with a bottle of scotch and a pile of negatives,only to emerge the following day, minus the scotch,or most of it, but with some of my most memorable prints,hanging, in the drying cabinet. The scotch, was easier than constantly, stopping for coffee, or soda,rather than for inspiration and fourteen or fifteen hours, accounted for it's reduction. The rest, was love and inspiration, diligence and technique and a joy at seeing beauty, come out of my efforts, both behind and after the camera. When he was a very little boy, my son would sometimes accompany me, into the darkroom and sitting on my hip, helping me process the prints, we would marvel, together, at their emergence, out of the developing tray. Memories like those, will forever tie me to a darkroom and far, far away from the world of computers and pixels and Photoshop.