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Does anyone like the darkroom process but not really into photography in general?

mehguy

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Does anyone really like the process of making a darkroom print and methodology of developing film, but not really into photography in general? I have a hard time finishing a roll of film a lot of the time and I've realized that this is the case for me as I really like the cameras and the process, but I find myself clueless as to what to shoot since I'm not a very creative person. I've never needed a creative outlet.


Is this the case for anyone?
 
I think it's interesting you bring it up, as I recognize the pattern. Personally I'm torn on the subject, since I have many things I like - but they seem to alternate. Sometimes I can really enjoy darkroom work, which is about a tangible craft and going through the motions. Other times I'm more interested in the image and topics like message, atmosphere, composition and color. Yet other times I find myself deep-diving into technical tinkering, making equipment, repairing things etc. Overall, those are the three interests I see represented a lot here on the forum, with personal interests emphasizing one over the others in most people. Overall, what's discussed on the forum is to a large extent about the craft-bit: the interface between creativity and technology, where the emphasis is on the process and less so on the idea (the story, the message) or the artifact (the equipment or the print). So I doubt you're alone in how you relate to this!
 
You're describing the thinking/feeling split in personality types. From what you described you're probably heavily in the thinking camp.
 
As an engineer, the combination of several sciences attracted me to photography (physics, optics, chemistry, and mechanics). Luckily for me, my photography buddies always made an effort to push me away from the technical side, where I felt more comfortable, and toward the artistic side where I have plenty of room to grow and learn. Overall, photography is an excellent pasttime,which will hopefully stay with me for many years to come.
 
I sway to the technical side, which comes easily to me, but I find the creative side a challenge and it probably maintains my interest in the long-run. I don't take many pictures for pleasure, but it is mainly due to cost of film, anticipated time in the darkroom (if B & W), and always saving a few shots in case I see something amazing.
 
What is the demand like for custom printers these days? The OP sounds like an ideal candidate for that.
 
MTGseattle said:
What is the demand like for custom printers these days? The OP sounds like an ideal candidate for that.
Click to expand...
In my opinion, a good or great printer needs to be creative, to be a collaborator in the process. As the OP states, "I'm not a very creative person. I've never needed a creative outlet." Not an ideal printer, I would think.
 
MTGseattle said:
What is the demand like for custom printers these days? The OP sounds like an ideal candidate for that.
Click to expand...

I once had a great collaboration with a several different custom printers. They all went out of business in the 1990's due to lack of customers. I'd love to find one that is still working today because I'm the complete opposite of the OP. I like photography but could be satisfied with a gap in my involvement between marking up proofs and work prints, and accepting final prints. Interestingly, none of my printers ever had much work of their own to show yet had spectacular prints of other people's negatives.

But I completely understand Pieter's comment and sometimes think it applies to me as well.
 
Nope. If I'm not making a print, or processing films, I'm out with cameras, looking. And if I'm not doing any of that, I'm editing videos.
 
In the past I've done a fair amount of printing for others, and I really enjoy it.
Last time I did it was a couple of years ago - reprinting some old negatives for a friend who is a fine and experienced photographer, but who transitioned to digital a while back for her personal and part time business photography.
And it was fun then too - and she thought my reprints were better than her original prints, which fed the ego a bit .
for me, I find both parts of the process - the taking and the making, as it were - complement and support each other.
If I haven't any new work to print, I'm not as inspired as when I have fresh, new negatives to explore/discover.
But if I haven't been in the darkroom for a bit, I feel it pulling me back.
 
mehguy said:
I find myself drawn to this hobby for some reason, then I face the mental block as described in my OP.
Click to expand...

When I get that mental block (and it happens to all of us), I take some time off. Been "off" for a couple of years now from "real" photography and starting to get back into it. For me buying gear doesn't break the mental block but this time it may have..
 
I am fond of making portraits; I am not at all certain I make art.

For now, I accept it. Very likely, I will one day get up and put all my gear on the curb for someone to collect. It's a win either way.
 
There is always Quality Control in a film lab where creativity is distinctly not needed.
 
mehguy said:
I really like the cameras and the process, but I find myself clueless as to what to shoot since I'm not a very creative person.
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I love wandering around with a camera in hand or back-pack — can be 35mm, 6x6 or 4x5, doesn't matter — and just look. Makes me feel like I'm connecting with the world around me.

That world can be in my house, my back yard, in town, in the countryside, in another country, doesn't matter. Can be someone, people, a tree, trash on the sidewalk, a brick wall, cars, an unmade bed, a dead bird on the grass, a snowy landscape,the guy making you a burger in a small-town diner, all that is, you name it, the list is infinite, as long as it is part of the world and that something about it — the thing itself but also how things relate to one another — struck me. The point is to look, and if you look, you cannot be clueless about what to shoot because there is always something in everything that will strike you.

At no point am I trying to be creative — and maybe at no point am I creative, who knows? That's not the point. The point is to look, and to connect via a camera, knowing the camera doesn't see like I see. The camera sees the world differently than I do, and at times I think it's the camera that's creative, not me. Or at least that the best way I can be creative is to try to understand, to figure out how the camera sees whatever I'm looking at and how it translates into a photograph the sense of connection I felt.

I love figuring out which developer will work best with the film I used for whatever I shot. Not much creativity there, it's more a question of experience.

I love getting to the darkroom and figuring out how I'm going to translate what I saw and what the camera gave me — the negative — into a print. Again, not trying to be creative. The negative is giving me something, I need to figure out which paper, developer, toner, etc., will make it "work" in the best possible ways.

To me it's the whole process. Love that all stages have in common that they are slow, they demand silence, solitude and reflexion, and that in each case there are problems to be solved.

I probably could just print for others, but I'd have to care a lot about what they photographed and why they photographed it.
 
I like the printing process and do not really like the photographing with camera, I basically force myself a few times every year to
use the camera to capture inventory that follow the themes of two of my main projects. It may be years before I every print the negatves I produce
today. Its all about the photographic print process, using the camera is a small part of my love of photography.
 
I have phases of low photographic interests at times too even though I have a complete darkroom.
 
"but I find myself clueless as to what to shoot since I'm not a very creative person"

Pick a subject to do a series on. It can be anything. It could be as small as flowers, or as big as mountains.
Keep it simple. One word. Trees, flowers, cars, boats, clouds, night, weather, zoo, buildings, events, insects, dogs, cats, birds, rust, water, shadows .........the list is endless.

Pick a subject. Load some film and just let the kid in you have some fun.
 
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The best technical photographer I have ever knew was Technical Sergeant Sydney Freeman USAF who said all his taste was in his mouth. When I worked for him he had the nailed all the combos of film and paper, color and black and white and color we had access to. He spent hours on the watts line (Long Distance) talking to Kodak and GAF fine tuning his process which were often at odds with official Air Force technical orders. He could shoot any technical or industrial assignment, aircraft, building, car accidents, but was horrible at portraits and shooting for the base newspaper, soulless. When he retired he got a great job as a medical photographer for large hospital in Dallas, more than doubled his Air Force pay. His personal camera was GAF 126 instamatic along with a baby speed. In the year that I worked for him I think he shot one roll of 126 and 2 rolls of 120.
 
Like the old Teac/Tascam manuals used to say, photography, like audio engineering, is both "a science and an art". It appeals to, and requires a level of commitment to both aspects, to both sides of the brain. Both in the camera and in the darkroom (or Lightroom etc.).

I think people naturally err to one side or the other. Being passionate about one aspect while considering the other a drudge or at best, a necessary part of the overall process, would be pretty typical.

I consider myself somewhat fortunate that I've found both sides more or less equally compelling, both in photography and other endeavours (audio recording/music production... even in work I've gone from graphic design to electrical engineering with an emphasis on lighting design).

Perhaps tellingly though, I'll always show preference to a very creative, technically poor image, than a technically perfect, creatively uninteresting image.
 
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