I have a dark room

After a year or two of wishing for a darkroom, I have finally set one up at the house. When Meow and I looked around our current abode for the first time, I spied this small room which had previously served as a maid’s quarters and knew exactly what it would become.

In the last few days of the Christmas holiday I managed to track down the missing pieces of darkroom equipment, install  ventilation and most importantly make it dark. Thanks to Manit Sriwanichpoom for helping me find a supplier of chemicals in China town and to Bok at procolour lab for advice and for letting me part with my cash for necessary bits and pieces. What I have is a rather humble cobbled together lot  but I was able to produce my very first print last night. I’m still without a timer but couldn’t wait so counted the various timings in my head. As the image started to appear on the test strip my smile broadened and in a moment the complete photographic process from exposure to developing to print became mine.

 First steps: test strip and print of Phuket Vegetarian festival 2010. Not a great print but overjoyed that it worked, it was straight and that it was sharp! A dark world of experimentation awaits.