A plighted photographer

[Nikanon]

I live in Glen Mills , PA, about 5-10 minutes from my grandparents house in chadds ford

 

[Anscojohn]

I live in Glen Mills , PA, about 5-10 minutes from my grandparents house in chadds ford

******
Ahh, so you know from Cheese Steaks then. I grew up north and east of you. Havertown. About half way between the Philly line and West Chester.
I bought my first decent camera at Rosenfeld's about 13th and Chestnut, in Center City--in 1961.

 

[Nikanon]

yes i do, i love philly cheesesteaks! i think i ran against havertown in track in highschool. Im hard pressed to find any non commercial photo shops around, when i see one somewhere i dont live i almost cry inside

 

[Larry Bullis]

Well, I sympathize, but since I've been in the academic world for a long time, I can tell you and everyone that it's changed a lot. I really can't offer a lot of hope. Some 15 years ago, one of my students tried to get access to the lab at U. Washington (Seattle) where I had very strong connections. My strongest connection called me up and asked "Who does she think she is? God?" There are a lot of reasons why schools limit access, and they aren't all because the faculty members believe that they are themselves gods. In the recent past, it has been because there was overwhelming demand, and as someone else mentioned, the fear of litigation trumps everything.

Give it about ten years or so; maybe not even. I've already noticed in my facility (where we do allow outside use by students and even outside community for a startlingly small fee - $35 for a ten week quarter) that digital has sucked the riff-raff away, leaving a few highly committed takers. My own retirement plans have been delayed partly out of fear that if nobody is promoting usage, they're going to look at the space we take up and calculate how many computers they can fit in there. I'm going to retire this year but also, plan on teaching workshops. Anyway, we are actively recruiting users, and some interesting folks have been showing up. Unfortunately, we are about as far as you can get from Philadelphia without leaving the lower 48.

I've had all manner of darkrooms. Check out Steven Pippin, a winner of the Turner Prize some years back. He said that as a child, he became interested in photography hanging out with his father. The family was so very poor that his father would go head first into a sleeping bag to load film into a daylight tank. With me, it was sort of the same, sometimes. I've actually done that. I had a room in a partitioned victorian house in Portland, Oregon, with a murphy bed and some laundry tubs. I had to fold the bed up on the wall. There was a long green "dresser" that served for a "sink", though sink it was not. Just a counter. The chemicals blistered the paint. There was a table that supported my Omega D3 (I had my priorities in order). I took workshops with Minor White. Minor said "I want to see your darkroom". I was terrified, but who could say no to that? He saw it, and said "I've had darkrooms like this". He told me that Barbara Morgan said that darkrooms reminder her of s**t, because she'd had so many bathrooms that doubled as darkrooms. I've done that several times, too. It's how I started. My stepfather's darkroom was the downstairs bathroom. My last darkroom had a toilet sticking out from the counter I'd set up to place the trays on. I had to straddle it while processing prints. I do not look back on that one with much fondness.

Now I'm building a darkroom in a 6x16 former contractor's shop trailer. The theory is, that it's going to be my last darkroom, and if we move, I never want to have to build another one. Also, it will be great to be able to drag it around.

Are there any chicken coops in Philly? Uh, you got to get the chickens out first. Imagine the consequences of feathers! Remember, though, that getting water in is possible with buckets. Getting water out is the big challenge.

Good luck. I just added you as a contact in flickr. Keep in touch. I like the way you think.

 

[dwdmguy]

I'm very close to Philly, you can come up to central NJ and use my darkroom

 

[Jeff Kubach]

Welcome to APUG Nikanon! I sorry to hear about your problems. There was a decent darkroom at a community college near where I live, but they decided to close it down just recently.

Jeff

 

[PeterAM]

Some things never change. When I was in high school I used to develop/enlarge on a typewriter table that I rolled in and out of a bathroom;the rest of my family hated it. Went to college (graduated in 1963) and found out that I couldn't use the massive darkroom in the J school unless I was taking a course. Took a course my senior year and used the darkroom at all hours for my own work. Got so spoiled using it, that I didn't touch a camera for the first five or so years after college because I didn't have a darkroom at my disposal.

I know that part of this has been mentioned in earlier replies, but I would look for any activity that you could join, that would give you access: newspaper, club, volunteer work, etc. While I understand some of the reasoning for not allowing access, you'd think that they would be a bit more reasonable given their responsibility to both educate and encourage. Maybe you can use the "no child left behind" argument....:rolleyes:

Like your work very much. Good luck.

 

[Nikanon]

There arent too many groups other than any kind of strictly film photography groups that use film, most are digital, newspaper, etc are all digital now, there is no thought in basically all the shots taken (most digital shooters take offense to this, but what they think is alot of thought and time is really not, there really is only so much you can do), so im kinda stuck on how to really get involved in something that people are finding less and less useful, (if only humanity would stop trying to find the easy way out on everything , (photoshop)).

 

[mike c]

The easy way out, that's so true Nikanon good Point.

 

[papagene]

Nikanon - hello and welcome to APUG from western Massachusetts. Sorry I don't have any great advise for you, as you seem a very committed young photographer.
I haven't been to Philly in about 20 years (my wife's family is from Philly originally), but I remember it to be quite photographic.
Good luck in school... Temple has a great reputation.

gene

 

[Chazzy]

Good luck, Nikanon.

 

[removed account4]

hi nikanon

welcome to apug and thanks for the link to your flicka page --- you do some very nice stuff!

see if you can be a lab monitor or TA to and swap your time there for lab use ...

instead of using film, do something alt process where you don' t need a darkroom.
cyanotypes, sunprints, using cliche verre instead of film, or convert photo paper into POP paper
and use that to print on.

not really a mindless-escape but it is a way to keep your brain thinking about composition and photography if you don't have access to the dark.


good luck!

 

[Nikanon]

Actually im not into cyanotypes, sunprints, pinholes, or any of the like. My photography requires very clearly presented photographs with high precision and technique stressed with the exposing, developing and printing. I do no other kind of photography. I dont really enjoy mindless escapes (my most mindless escape is probably sudoku or a crossword puzzle).

I actually own an enlarger now, an omega D2, my problem is convincing my father that arista premium liquid chemicals are some of the safest you can buy (and they are), finding a source of ventilation, and enough information to show him its not going to kill everyone (more than just the full pdf :-/)

 

[Fred De Van]

Don't despair. I went to The Museum School (now called University of the arts) 40 years ago, and for freshman the onis was on ART not the photography I was a major in. There were NO restrictions on the darkrooms then. I have benefited greatly from that program. I spent over a decade working for Life Magazine, and 20 more years at other units within the Time-Life family. Time, SI, Fortune, People.

Get to know others from Annenburg (Penn) where I lectured, Moore, UArt and you will find resources.

I still prefer to work with MF and LF cameras.