Dedicated Darkroom in San Francisco

jss · Oct 14, 2008

I've been hunting around for studios to rent in San Francisco to setup a dedicated darkroom space. I have plenty of equipment (enlargers capable up to 4x5, print washer, plenty of trays, etc) but want to have a space outside of my residence to go when I want to do work. I figure if I'm paying rent on a space and can go do darkroom with little setup/tear-down effort, I will be more able to work on the projects I want to work on. Problem is, most spaces that can do such things are in the neighborhood of $400/mo. I've found some darkrooms in SF in my search, but they are shared by others and have schedules and are not too organized.

So, I'm expanding my search to look for one other who would be interested in going half in on a deal with me. I thought I'd put this out there to see if there's interest. Basically, we'd make a formal agreement and go halvesies on a studio we can convert into a darkroom. I've found a place in the Mission that looks clean, the staff is friendly, and they participate in Open Studios.

Many months ago I saw a craigslist posting about a shared studio (shared by 3 or 4 folks) but the listing disappeared, I guess they found someone.

I've also looked at more commercial darkrooms for rent. They are often during business hours and would get pretty expensive with frequent use. I have a day job, I'm mainly looking for a space to go work on nights and weekends.

pelerin · Oct 14, 2008

jss said:
I've been hunting around for studios to rent in San Francisco to setup a dedicated darkroom space. I have plenty of equipment (enlargers capable up to 4x5, print washer, plenty of trays, etc) but want to have a space outside of my residence to go when I want to do work. I figure if I'm paying rent on a space and can go do darkroom with little setup/tear-down effort, I will be more able to work on the projects I want to work on. Problem is, most spaces that can do such things are in the neighborhood of $400/mo. I've found some darkrooms in SF in my search, but they are shared by others and have schedules and are not too organized.

So, I'm expanding my search to look for one other who would be interested in going half in on a deal with me. I thought I'd put this out there to see if there's interest. Basically, we'd make a formal agreement and go halvesies on a studio we can convert into a darkroom. I've found a place in the Mission that looks clean, the staff is friendly, and they participate in Open Studios.

Many months ago I saw a craigslist posting about a shared studio (shared by 3 or 4 folks) but the listing disappeared, I guess they found someone.

I've also looked at more commercial darkrooms for rent. They are often during business hours and would get pretty expensive with frequent use. I have a day job, I'm mainly looking for a space to go work on nights and weekends.

Hi,
In a long ago age people used to post space share ads (and other "classifieds") on the bulletin board at New Lab. I suppose, in the Craig's list era, that might seem a bit quaint but at least you are (were) advertising to qualified leads. You likely know about the following places:

Dead Link Removed
http://www.siliconvalleydebug.org/
Dead Link Removed

Rayko certainly has evening and weekend hours and 400$ would buy a lot of darkroom time - especially if you made judicious use of the promotions they run. It also frees you from a lease, insurance cover, and "formal agreements" with other folks.
Best.

Celac
Who has enough stuff to build a commercial lab in storage and no where to play with it.

vdonovan · Oct 15, 2008

I live in San Francisco but it would be hard to entice me out of Rayko. I get the $160 monthly pass which gives UNLIMITED film processing, group darkroom (color and B&W), dry mount press, and scanning on a Nikon 9000, plus 50% off private darkroom time. I never have to mix chemistry or set up or tear down. I just show up, print, and go home.

jss · Oct 15, 2008

re: rayko in san francisco

i'm reconsidering rayko based on these responses. i guess that since i started with "owning" a space i had the idea that being confined to business hours or ending at 10pm or not starting too early on weekends would be too much of restriction for me.

but i may give it a try..

thanks for the responses so far!

vdonovan said:
I live in San Francisco but it would be hard to entice me out of Rayko. I get the $160 monthly pass which gives UNLIMITED film processing, group darkroom (color and B&W), dry mount press, and scanning on a Nikon 9000, plus 50% off private darkroom time. I never have to mix chemistry or set up or tear down. I just show up, print, and go home.

Dedicated Darkroom in San Francisco

jss

pelerin

vdonovan

jss

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