"I have often said that the negative is similar to a composer’s score, and the print to the performance of that score. The negative comes to life only when 'performed' as a print."
—Ansel Adams, The Print (1983)
From Just a Dark Room:
Simply put, a darkroom is a dark room where white light is strictly restricted to allow the development of light-sensitive chemicals, processing of light-sensitive photographic materials, and making prints. The room, which was influenced by the modern-day laboratory, houses a range of chemicals and equipment. Red light is used in darkrooms for its low energy and low wavelength, which does not trigger any chemical reactions but still allows a darkroom practitioner/photographer to see.
Although the darkroom as we know it emerged in the 19th century alongside photography itself, its conceptual and scientific roots stretch far back in history. Ancient thinkers such as Aristotle, the Persian scholar Ibn Al-Haytham, and Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci experimented with the principles of the camera obscura, or “dark chamber” in Latin. In the phenomenon of a camera obscura, rays of light pass through a tiny hole in a wall into a completely dark chamber. As the light strikes a surface, it projects a reverse and inverted image of the view outside. This technology was then modified into early photographic cameras in the early 19th century, where mobile camera obscura boxes were used to expose light-sensitive materials onto the projected image. Artists used it as a tool to study perspective, proportion, and foreshortening, laying the groundwork for both realistic painting and later photographic processes.
The first photographs, made by pioneers like Nicéphore Niépce around 1824, marked a profound shift. Niépce’s heliography process involved hardening bitumen in sunlight to capture images on metal plates. These early photographic processes were complex and delicate, requiring specialized environments to develop images reliably. Darkrooms became indispensable when the Wet Collodion process (also called the Collodion Wet Plate process) was created in 1851 by Frederick Scott Archer. In this process, a small percentage of iodide salts in a collodion solution was carefully poured onto a glass plate, leaving a thin, clear film. The plate was then placed in a solution of silver nitrate. When removed from the silver, the collodion film contained a translucent yellow compound of light-sensitive silver iodide—the plate, still wet, was exposed and then developed by inspection under red light. As it was necessary to immediately develop the wet plates, photographers had to either restrict the places they wished to photograph or find a way to make darkrooms smaller and portable. With the invention of gelatin dry plates in the 1880s, the darkroom could be separated from the field and could become its own space.
Darkrooms in the mid-19th century were hence quite unsanitary and toxic spaces- with poor and dim lighting (yellow or ruby lanterns were used before electric bulbs), a lack of proper ventilation, and constant inhaling of toxic chemicals. The higher sensitivity of the gelatin dry plates and later films also forced darkroom operators who were used to working with yellow light to shift to red.
To get an idea of how darkrooms used to look in the late 19th century, let’s take a look at the ‘Darkroom Requirements’ by Charles A. Long in his manual, Practical Photography, on glass and paper, which was published in 1859. According to Long, a proper darkroom should ideally have:
Filter papers and funnels
Travelling Darkrooms and Technical History:
In the history of photography, darkrooms occupy a strange position. Unlike photography, darkrooms do not have an extensive social history. Therefore, it is difficult to trace the social nature of their operators and their evolution into the 20th century. Interestingly, darkrooms were a big source of technical discussion in photographic journals, manuals, and newspapers, which were published extensively since the mid-19th century. It is from these sources that one can get an idea of the value that photographers gave to darkrooms, their creation, and maintenance.
Makeshift darkrooms have always existed alongside analogue photography. Old manuals give instructions on how to convert kitchens and spare rooms into darkrooms. Darkrooms have also ‘travelled’ in a variety of shapes. Mathew B. Brady, one of America’s first famous photographers, famously outfitted a wagon as a mobile darkroom during the American Civil War, bringing the technical processes to battlefields. Aside from wagons, photographers made a darkroom in tents and even in boxes. While little is known about how common people perceived such mobile creations, travelling darkrooms were foundational to early photographers who sought to capture unknown landscapes and little-known regions. These travelling darkrooms were also possibly nodal points of conversation and curiosity between locals and the photographers. Photographers may have trained local men to operate the darkroom during expeditions and taught basic photographic processes through these mobile darkrooms.
The box camera darkroom is also of particular interest in the history of photography in Asia. Known as kamra-e-faoree (instant camera in Dari) in Afghanistan, street photographers modified field cameras into a self-contained unit that functioned simultaneously as a camera and a darkroom. This allowed them to capture and develop photographs on the spot, and the resulting print could be available in minutes. These photographers were crucial to the visual and social history of the city of Delhi between the 1960s to 1980s, and it is through this technique that many common people could get their likeness captured.
The Modern Darkroom:
As mentioned earlier, the darkroom was separated from the field and became static with the invention and usage of gelatin dry plates in the 1880s. The space has continued to evolve. Now, let’s take a look at what modern darkrooms usually consist of:
Similar to older darkrooms, cloths and trays are also kept. What is different is that now there is a greater safety concern, and hence it is crucial for the darkroom to be properly ventilated.
The darkroom evolved into more than a technical necessity; it became a place of artistic exploration and mastery. Classic darkroom techniques such as dodging and burning allowed photographers to manipulate light on the print selectively. Dodging decreases exposure to lighten parts of an image, while burning increases exposure to darken areas. These hands-on techniques enabled photographers to highlight details, create depth, balance contrast, and express mood and narrative. Aside from dodging and burning, photographers used masking to combine images or isolate sections, experimented with cropping at the printing stage, and applied toning methods to alter a print's color and texture. These manipulations open a space for creative performance, where vision and skill transform captured moments into unique artworks.
Decline and Revival:
While darkrooms continued to be foundational to analogue photography and photographic studios, their dominance began to diminish with the digital revolution in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, which fundamentally transformed photographic practice. The need for physical darkrooms died down as images could be manipulated, printed, and shared digitally without chemicals or light-sensitive papers.
Even before the era of digital photography, companies tried to discard the darkroom. An interesting Kodak advertisement from the early 1900s reads-
“DARK-ROOM ABOLISHED- By the Kodak System every step in picture taking and picture making is accomplished in daylight- loading, unloading, developing, fixing, printing. The Kodak way gives better results than the old way, too.”
The invention of the Polaroid camera, which many of us are familiar with now, also eradicated the need for a darkroom. These advancements need to be scrutinized in some ways, as the darkroom may have also been visualized as a ‘burden’ by many, and a hindrance to many common people who would want to practice photography. Regardless, the darkroom has continued to survive the test of time, as many photographers have continued to revisit or dabble in alternative and analogue photography.
Museo Camera celebrates the world of analogue photography and continues to educate and keep alive such spaces. The museum has a one-to-one recreation of a darkroom in its main gallery with many historic chemical bottles and equipment. The museum also has a modern darkroom, which is used for workshops, such as Film and Analog and Chemigram workshops, where individuals work in a darkroom and learn about its components. The link to these workshops can be found on our website at https://www.museocamera.org/workshops-courses
Want to know more about darkrooms and their components? Visit Museo Camera today!
