Altered States - Analogue Methods

In today's workshop we were taught how to use a darkroom and an analogue film camera.

The morning we spent in the darkroom was something I found very enjoyable- I had always wanted to learn how to use a darkroom, as older methods of producing photographs are interesting to me.

We were originally going to use photos that we had already taken for this printed on acetate, but when we were editing those photos, we were unaware that we needed to invert the image before printing them. This now feels like a very silly mistake, so I won't make it again if I get another chance to go in the darkroom. If I had been given the acetate positive, then I could have still used it to create a paper negative, and a paper positive from that negative.

Since I didn't have any acetate at all, I managed to improvise.

Instead of using a photograph, I placed different objects on top of paper underneath the enlarger, and exposed light onto and through them. I used objects that were fully opaque and some that were transparent for different effects.

Above: One of the enlargers

Above: The Darkroom with the safety light on

Above: A close up of the development baths

Above: Image created with a clamp and a thin perfume bottle

Above: Image created with a perfume bottle

Above: Paper negative created from a paper positive as an experiment

In the afternoon we were shown how to set up and use a Bronica film camera.

We learnt how to fully disassemble and reassemble the camera, remove film and load new film, and actually use it.

Above: The Camera

Above: The loaded film

As for our subject, we tried our hands at fashion promotion style shots using projection. I found the workshop really enjoyable and interesting- while we were setting up I was constantly seeing new potential photographs and I was seriously loving the colour.

Sadly, my inexperience with the film camera really showed through. Before this point, I hadn't been able to truly familiarise myself with manual camera settings, so I wasn't able to adjust them on the fly to compensate for changes in lighting. I wish I had used my digital camera to take the shots as well- I would've loved to have done the vibrancy of those colours justice.

Below are the two shots I was able to take in the short time we had.