A place where time never ends
Cristina Recalde
Issue date: 3/23/06 Section: Features
Jill Newton is vexed when she discovers that her film is completely blank. "That's great, 35 pictures and about three hours of dedication are going to the trash," she says as she throws away the damaged film.
The students experience frustration and disappointment but this fades away when they achieve the perfect picture.
"It takes time and dedication," says Hubert as she looks at her finished art piece-the image of a man's tattooed back.
Hubert's face lights up and a smile covers her face when the other students compliment her photograph. Success-after two nights of printing around eight proofs of the same picture.
Time stops in the dark room as the students make print after print, striving for the perfect picture. A perfect picture consists of a good exposure when the picture is taken and also when it is developed.
It is a long procedure.
First the film must be processed and that takes about 40 minutes. Then the negatives must dry for approximately two hours. It is only after this that the student can enter the dark room and actually develop the picture.
In Hubert's case, she takes some time looking at a contact sheet as she decides which picture to print.
Then she has to decide which aperture to use, what filter and how long to let the light burn the image on the special paper. Hubert patiently goes in and out of the room with the different prints as the hours just fly away.
It seems as if time stops in the dark room because the students are isolated from everything else and their minds are focused only on their prints.
However, time does not stop.
With a gentle tick, tock, tick, tock, it walks away.
It's now 11 p.m.
The students experience frustration and disappointment but this fades away when they achieve the perfect picture.
"It takes time and dedication," says Hubert as she looks at her finished art piece-the image of a man's tattooed back.
Hubert's face lights up and a smile covers her face when the other students compliment her photograph. Success-after two nights of printing around eight proofs of the same picture.
Time stops in the dark room as the students make print after print, striving for the perfect picture. A perfect picture consists of a good exposure when the picture is taken and also when it is developed.
It is a long procedure.
First the film must be processed and that takes about 40 minutes. Then the negatives must dry for approximately two hours. It is only after this that the student can enter the dark room and actually develop the picture.
In Hubert's case, she takes some time looking at a contact sheet as she decides which picture to print.
Then she has to decide which aperture to use, what filter and how long to let the light burn the image on the special paper. Hubert patiently goes in and out of the room with the different prints as the hours just fly away.
It seems as if time stops in the dark room because the students are isolated from everything else and their minds are focused only on their prints.
However, time does not stop.
With a gentle tick, tock, tick, tock, it walks away.
It's now 11 p.m.
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