The darkroom is getting to the stage where I can start fitting it out and then start splashing some chemicals around in anger. The long bedroom has been divided into two by a partition wall and I'm waiting for the plaster to dry as I write this.
The photograph above is taken from the non-darkroom half of the old bedroom - the darkroom is beyond the door. The joiner/plasterer work has all been done and the next step will involve me giving the walls on the darkroom side a coat of paint. Then I'll start attaching the various cupboards and kitchen units to the wall and get the sink plumbed in and we're almost there.
The two pics above are of the darkroom itself. It might seem slightly strange to divide a room with a window at one end into two and then base the darkroom at the window side but that's where the plumbing connections are and it's both easier and cheaper to black out a window with a blind than it is to run new waste and water pipes for a sink.
I'm trying to think of what to use the non-darkroom side of the room for. Cath has a quaint notion that it might be for listening to music in or a "library" and is strangely resistant to my idea of a darkroom annexe. I think it would be great for trimming, spotting and mounting prints along with housing my photography books, hi fi gear and computer. Basically, a man cave. I'm so alpha I make Trump look like Obama so there's only going to be one winner. Just please don't tell Cath yet.
Morning Bruce - that's good work!
ReplyDeleteYou could turn the rest of the room into a sort of clubhouse for traditional photographers and we could all wear hats with horns on them and muse long over vintage Weston prints, and spray eau-de-Ilford all over the place, or maybe an Indoor Shed is just the thing. Having had my own Indoor Shed since we moved here I can attest to the fact that they are wonderful things, in fact, I couldn't do without mine - it actually used to be a darkroom at one point and before that was a scullery for the house. The darkroom proper is in the 'Butler's Cupboard', so you're lucky being able to have everything in one place.
If you tell Cath it's a chance to get all your 'crap' out of the way and into one space and you promise to keep it clean and neat then it can't go wrong.
So, two weeks - looking forward to it. Hope the sink does the job - you should tell the story of that sink - it still amazes me that such a useful thing was just sitting outside the Art College for all that time . . and no one took it.
a good solution to solve the problem ...the only thing that rest is now make good appointments with the user(s) of the bedroom .Good luck Bruce! you can make it , you've resolved so much other problems ...
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see you printing in a darkroom again, Bruce.
ReplyDeleteAny ideas about where you're going to start?
I think I'll look out some of my favourite Leica negs, Marty, as I've only seen scans from them and I'm curious to see what they're like. I have a romantic notion of printing Leica negs through a Leica enlarging lens on a Leitz enlarger. Does everyone go a bit funny as they get older?
ReplyDeleteGetting a bit funny as you grow older? Perhaps the truth is that we begin to notice it as we grow older.
ReplyDeleteI resemble that remark!
ReplyDelete