My first darkroom
As a fifteen-year-old boy I was developing black and white films in an improvised darkroom with two simple tables, three small darkroom developing trays. I blew up photographs on the enlargement machine that was made of an old camera, condenser from an army waste and using the light source which was placed in a Valvoline oil can.
And in addition to that I could work only at night because it was situated on an attic without walls. This was 1975.
New Darkroom
45 years later I decided to make a new darkroom. But it is much easier to think about it than to make it. I found a solution – the laundry room. I needed to move all unnecessary stuff from room and paint the walls with water-resistant paint. That was the beginning.
Since I didn’t have a large enough darkroom sink, I had to make a new one. I made it from 28 mm thick plywood.
The panels were cut and glued with two-component polyurethane adhesive. After gluing, the drain hole was cut, and the entire sink was sanded. After sanding the plywood, the lower part of the sink was painted with a special paint that is used to restore the sanitary elements in the bathroom. It is a type of high-quality polyurethane varnish with high resistance to acids and alkaline. The rest of the darkroom sink is painted with high-quality oil paint.
Sink dimensions are 220x75cm.
I made 3 shelves for drying photos under the sink and the rest of them are compartments for the trays, boxes and other stuff. I’ve replaced the regular light bulb on the ceiling with 125w LED lamp which has a custom cover with an orange filter – It works perfectly for old techniques because it is a lot of light for precise work and no possibility to fog the papers.
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