Analog.....

This caught my eye in the press the other day an exhibition entitled Analog - " last one out "....
It brought back fond memories and started the search for some old transparencies I knew I had knocking about in some Ilford 10"x8” paper boxes....more on that later...

...Analog is an exhibition by photographer Richard Nicholson,
photographing the disappearing commercial darkrooms......

He spent three years photographing them in London. It's scary that when he began his project in 2006, there were more than 200 thriving darkrooms dotted around the city, when he completed in 2009, there were just 12 !
Dread to think how many are left now...

My first photographic job was working in a black and white darkroom 20 plus years ago.... 

at the tender age of 17... 

 ( see image below )

It's me with my favourite toy of the time, a DE VERE 504 drop baseboard enlarger with an Ilford multigrade head. You can still buy a 504' new amazingly
( link )  but modified for the digital age.

Hours must of gone by filing down neg masks so I could print “full frame”  with the negatives black borders showing.
Fond memories of Radio 4 afternoon plays, red lights and the smell (or rather taste) of fixer which needed to be replaced once a month. Syphoned off with a tube into 5 litre containers ready for the silver to be reclaimed.
I can still taste it now.

Looking through Richard's shots it's amazing how similar all darkrooms are or evolve into.

While delving into these boxes I also came across more embarrassing pictures of me...

these are of me, going self employed....first press release shots...contact sheets even !
oh how I miss contacts....

a Hasselblad was almost a right of passage then.....

...and now the red lights have gone...its predominantly me and my 17” MacBook Pro these days....
so much more flexibility (I'm a huge fan of Silver effects pro ) but it's nowhere near as much fun...
must be getting old and I also wonder what's in store for us photographically in the next 20 years......