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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Darkroom Develops Nostalgia For Students

Middlebury College’s student-run darkroom lies tucked away in the basement of Forest Hall, proving that hidden amongst the drone of washing machines, Forest basement is also a place of creativity.

Previously, the darkroom existed out of necessity and was used by Campus photographers shooting film. Caroline Fernandes ’14.5, the Darkroom club’s current president, recalled her first impression of the run-down darkroom.

“There were signs everywhere advertising phone numbers for the Campus, and old issues strewn about,” she said.

Currently, the darkroom is run by the Darkroom club, and embodies an escape into the past and defies the notion that technological advancements lead to superior results.

“In terms of feeling satisfied artistically, I always shoot film,” Fernandes said. “I just find that I get really bored with digital. You have so much control very quickly, and anything can be altered on Photoshop. I like the nostalgia of film.”

The darkroom therefore offers students an unregulated space where they can have free reign over the creative process.

“The darkroom is a really nice place on campus that is pretty rare,” Fernandes said. “People who are not in the art program and have not taken any art classes have a space where they can just use it and do whatever they want in a non-academic related way.”

To gain access to the darkroom, students can either pay $65, which includes admission for one semester and J-term, or $100, which allows for use for the full year. The fee covers 24/7 access, all chemical materials, occasional film and paper handouts, equipment to borrow and cheap film for purchase.

“I’d like to be able to lower the cost of access,” Fernandes said. “Although the darkroom’s prices pale in comparison to real world prices, I think the price tag is what turns people away. I think if more people used it, the SGA would be willing to give the club more money just to make it free for everybody. However, making it free and open to everybody could potentially be a real issue because it’s a scary thing to grant open access to all of the serious chemicals that are used in the dark room.”

Fernandes points to the free admission of the ceramics club as a model that she hopes her own club can emulate. She eventually withdrew from this notion however, by saying, “a fee is necessary because it shows you are really serious about doing this, which is necessary considering all of the unmonitored access your membership gives you.”

SGA Treasurer Ilana Gratch ’16 further explained why the darkroom club requires a fee.

“Every student organization has different needs, which is why we have a committee responsible for allocating the Student Activities Fee [SAF], as opposed to an automated process. In some cases, there are hard and fast rules [the Student Government Association Finance Committee guidelines] to which we always adhere. In other cases, we must use discretion to determine how to most appropriately respond to budget proposals. So, for example, while it is feasible for the Finance Committee to allocate funds to enable the ceramics studio to function without a cost to the students, the same isn’t necessarily true of the dark room, and this is due to specific differences in the costs required to maintain these studios, as well as the estimated cost per student.”

Gratch continued, “The Finance Committee is working with a finite sum of money and, as a result, there is sometimes a cost for participation in an event or activity. In the case of the darkroom, there is a relatively high cost per student, a cost that would not be sustainable for the Finance Committee to carry out for every organization. As a committee, we do our best to subsidize as many costly events as we can, but again, we are not working with endless funds.”

Despite the club’s fees, the darkroom’s popularity is on the rise. With over 70 people on the email list and 12 students actively using the darkroom this semester, it is clear that Fernandes is not alone in her call to nostalgia. Support from Commons Coordinator Lin Schiffer, the club’s faculty advisor, and Commons Dean Ian Sutherland, who donated a camera to the club, demonstrates that the community wants to see the club succeed.

The club also has big plans for the future. Fernandes will host a J-term workshop that covers an introduction to darkroom photography, specifically how to use a manual camera, how to develop film and how to print photos from the enlarger and from negatives. In addition, Fernandes and Schiffer have discussed the possibility of producing a show to be displayed in the McCullough Social Space or the M-Gallery.

With her graduation this February, Fernandes stressed her need to find a replacement to take over the club.

“I just need to find someone interested who wants to make the darkroom a really nice spot for people to use,” she said.

The darkroom serves as a reminder that a return to simplicity and artistic control cannot be ignored.

 


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