My Darkroom

I thought I would share some thoughts about my darkroom, and what I hope for in its next reincarnation, as in a few short months it will have to be packed up for wherever its next home will be.

We purchased our current home in December 2002, from  Bill and Margaret Brudon.  It was a private sale, and it all came about because Bill had been a great mentor in photography to me, and we always enjoyed their home.  We moved a mile and sold the home we had purchased in 1984 and in the span of a few days, closed on two home transactions, cleaned the old house, and moved into our current home, which, because it did not go on the open market, was much like moving into your parent's old house.  My wife and I did a lot of cleaning and decluttering, and we never missed our old home once.  This house is a mid-century home with real plaster walls, cove ceiling in the living and dining rooms, red oak flooring (which is just now being refinished this week).  It also came with a 5x7 darkroom in the basement, fully furnished, since Bill was leaving that behind.  This darkroom allowed me to explore b&w photography as much as I wished, and I have spent many hours there developing film, listening to music, or more recently, The Film Photography Podcast, and WCBN FM, a public radio station at UM that plays an amazing variety of music.

I have not printed a single b&w photo in the past 3 years, and I miss doing that.  I used to print a lot, and got fairly good results, but now I only print if I am doing a show.  That  seems a bit stupid in hindsight, but I really didn't want to be inundated with prints without a purpose.  I hope to change that in the coming years, and wherever our new home will be, it will have to have space for my new expanded darkroom.   I am torn as to take the darkroom sink with me, or leave it.  It's perfect for the space that it is now.  I'll have to wait and see how I feel as a real move approaches. 

The walls on one side are paneling, and as you can see, cassette wrappers are stuck to it.  The other sides are masonite peg board, which had been painted black by Bill.  My new space will have no black walls.  This is a comfortable one-person darkroom. Put two people in there, and it's awfully close.  I want to be able to do film photography workshops in the future, so more space would be desirable.

This darkroom has performed well for two different photographers, and I very much doubt the next owner of the house will want it used.  Maybe it will make a good space for something other than photography, but I suppose it will get torn out someday.    A lot of "me time" has been spent there, developing, thinking, and isolated from whatever is going on outside in the world.   Those of you that have a darkroom will know what I mean.   It's not so much that one is isolated, but free from distraction to print and to ponder, to develop that next roll of film and still feel the magic that is inherent in the process, and to think about new projects and continuing old ones.

So, sometime in the next few months, I will be boxing all of the stuff up to take to a new adventure.  I have already divested myself of materials and equipment that I don't need or use, and while there will still be some junk to be tossed, everything else goes to NC with us.

Quickie Review - The Beacon 225

Last September, I purchased a lovely Beacon 225 in the lether case for the sum of $5 at the PTO Thrift shop in Ann arbor.  It was a banner day, because that is when I also bought the Olympus Trip 35 that I have enjoyed using.  The Beacon sat on the shelf over the winter, until I decided to re-spool some 120 film onto 620 spools a few weeks ago.  I loaded some 1997-expired Verichrome Pan - a perfect film for simple cameras such as the Beacon 225.

The Beacon 225 was made by Whitehouse Products in Brooklyn, NY, between 1950 -1958.  Whitehouse Products is another of those post-WWII camera companies that lasted about a decade. The Beacon II is very similar, but it's smaller and takes 127 film.  The Beacon 225, like the Beacon II, has a collapsible lens box that snaps into place when pulled away from the body. Then, the shutter will fire.  The Beacon 225 takes 12  6x6 cm images on 620 roll film.  The shutter speeds are Instant and Bulb, with aperture settings for sunny ("brite") (f/16?) and cloudy ("dull") (f/8?).  The lens is a 70 mm coated doublet.  There is a tripod thread on the bottom of the camera.  The red window in the back is set in a rectangular frame. The camera is mostly black plastic of some sort, and is actually rather attractive.  It collapses to a respectable size that would fit into a coat pocket.

On March 20, I shot the roll of Verichrome Pan, mostly along the beach in Muskegon, MI.  The wind was really gusty, and sand was blowing all over the place.  What better conditions to use a cheap camera?

I developed the Verichrome Pan in D-76 1:1 for 9 minutes.  Overall,  I am quite pleased with the results, and the subject matter was perfectly suited to this camera.