Adv. Darkroom Photography with Sarah Miles
Class Journal
Week 1: Introduction
I’ve always considered Sarah Miles one of my professors because of how much I interacted with her and because of how much she inspired me during my time as an undergrad student but I never had the honor of having an actual class with her. Finally, six years later, I can officially refer to her as one of my professors. Hooray for returning to school! My photographic education had essentially been entirely digital up till now and I have been itching to learn about film and work in a darkroom for several years. Needless to say, I am super excited about this class for multiple reasons. I can’t wait to learn all the things and experiment!
Technically there are three classes going on at the same time during our class. The undergrad grad, an advanced darkroom class, and then my graduate level class so assignments and expectations from students are a bit different for each of us. The advanced students only meet for class on Tuesdays, but since I’m new to Darkroom Photography I’ll meet on both Tuesdays and Thursdays with the undergrad class.
- Thursday, 08/24: First Day of Class
- Course Introduction and Syllabus Review
- Toured the new lighting studio
Week 2: Review
Spent most of the class reviewing photography terms and concepts. I felt super rusty having not been formally quizzed on this stuff for about 6 years. I had to take my test right after review since I would be absent Thursday. I did well. I only missed one item and I only missed it because I misread the numbers. I still feel silly about it though because I looked back over my test answers twice. Oh well.
- Tuesday, 08/29:
- Photo Review & Test
- Sarah had me going on what TTL stood for and the whole class cracked up.
- Thursday, 09/31: Absent
- Class reviewed safety information and took a safety quiz.
Week 3: Photograms
- Tuesday, 09/05:
- Discussed: film grain, photographic paper composition, photograms
- Photo Development Demo
- Darkroom / Classroom Etiquette, Safety, and Cleaning
- Made test strips
- Joined Slack group to plan Silver Show with other advanced students. Discussed initial plans.
- Thursday, 09/07:
- Film rolling demonstration
- Photogram demonstration
- Photogram making
- Friday, 09/08
- Darkroom 9 pm – 3:30 am
- Sunday, 09/10
- Darkroom 6 pm – 10:30 pm
Tuesday was less stressful than expected. Fortunately for me, I didn’t miss much from being absent last Thursday. Sarah gave me a pop quiz on the safety stuff and that caught me up. Class discussion was interesting. I really enjoy the technical and chemical stuff. I like understanding why and how things work. The darkroom demonstration was excellent but a bit of a pain. Too many people in a small space and my back and ankle were killing me. I’m starting to wonder if I’m going to have to go have a chat with the disability department at JSU about accommodations for my health issues. I’m trying to just push through the pain but I think I’m making my injuries worse. #sigh
The advanced students discussed plans for the silver-based photo show we are to plan and execute while I was in the darkroom demonstration. They put together a nice plan and I’m looking forward to working with them to curate a show.
On Thursday we discussed our first assignment — five photograms are due next week. Sarah demonstrated how to roll film, did a photogram demonstration in the darkroom, and then we all made some photograms.
Week 4: Film Processing
- Tuesday, 09/12:
- University closed due to Hurricane Irma
- Thursday, 09/14:
- Looked at our photograms
- Learned about Film Processing
- For next class: shoot and develop two rolls of film
- I submitted three images to the SPESC Student Show in Waco, TX (takes place in October)
- Sunday, 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm:
- Film Processing
Week 5: Contact Sheets & Darkroom Printing
- Tuesday, 09/19
- Learned about making test strips from film negatives, and using filters to reduce or increase contrast
- For Thursday: print two contact sheets
- Came back in the afternoon and printed contact sheets
- Thursday
- Photo Club talk (meeting is in the afternoon)
- Learning about developing prints from a negative
- Photo Club Officer Planning Meeting (5 pm – 6:30 pm)