25 October 2022
Thursday 08th and Friday 09th June 2023
University of Westminster, London (UK) & hybrid
Deadline for paper proposals: by Monday 09th January 2023
A PDF copy of the CFP is available here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/140coqoJs3_QfBDijW9c12d83B0APRVho/view?usp=sharing
What role has the photographic darkroom played in the histories of photography and visual culture? How has this space, at times known as the camera obscura, developing room, laboratory, operating room, operating box, darkened chamber, photographic tent, dark tent, and developing tent, shaped ways of living and knowing?
Historical accounts of the wet darkroom are sparse, and critical discussions largely limited to this space as the site of photographic manipulation. Yet, the darkroom is not a neutral container for photographic production, but a space with its own materiality, rhythm, and choreography that has been central to experiences of, for example, scientific experimentation, research, learning, commerce, colonial encounters, political and cultural agency, sociability, and individual and artistic expression.
This hybrid two-day event initiates a critical conversation about the largely overlooked space of the darkroom, and outlines new ways to research, theorise, and interpret the roles that it has played in our modern world. In the Photographic Darkroom will seek to do so by shifting the focus from the visual product (e.g., negatives and prints) to the setting itself within which these objects were produced, positing that the material, socio-cultural, and corporeal dimensions of the darkroom had an influence on how people conceptualised and, consequently, understood photography. This will enable us to rethink the role of photography in the development of modern visual culture, and its wider historical relations, from fresh viewpoints.
To this end, we invite papers for 15 minute presentations from academics, practitioners, and museums and archives professionals at all career stages working in research areas such as photographic history, visual culture, media and communications studies, social, cultural and media history, cultural studies, history of art, archives and records management, and any other related fields of research.
Proposals may explore, but are not limited to:
Commercial photographic laboratories
Bodily and sensory experiences in the darkroom
Darkroom diseases
Darkroom networks and related communities of practice
Darkroom practices vis-à-vis visual epistemologies
The darkroom technician
The darkroom in visual and popular culture
Global histories of the darkroom (from any historical period)
Historic darkrooms
The material culture of the darkroom
Performative and tacit forms of knowledge in the darkroom
Portable darkrooms
Power relations in the darkroom
The relationship between the darkroom and the natural environment
The relationship between the space of the darkroom and its place within urban and not-urban contexts
Researching the darkroom in archives and special collections
Paper proposals should be submitted as ONE Word or PDF document to Dr Sara Dominici at s.dominici1@westminster.ac.uk by Monday 09th January 2023. The document should include:
Your full name
Email address
Institutional affiliation (when applicable)
Paper title
Proposal of no longer than 300 words for presentations of 15 minutes
Indication of whether you would be presenting in person or online
Short biographical note (100-140 words)
Event format: The event will take place at the University of Westminster in London (UK) in hybrid form and we will be able to accommodate a number of online presentations. The language of the event will be English. There will be no registration costs for speakers and attendees, but participants will be responsible for their own travel and accommodation. The organisers do not have funds to assist with travel or accommodation expenses.
Importantly: Selected speakers will be invited to contribute extended versions of their papers to a journal special issue or edited volume on the same theme. Please could all the applicants consider their paper proposals for research not yet published elsewhere as expressions of interest to contribute to the edited publication as well, or specify in the document itself if their paper proposal is based on research that has already been published elsewhere and/or if they would not want to be considered for the edited publication.
21 May 2022
The final programme of the International Workshop on Recreative Practices in the Art and Humanities taking place at De Montfort University on 15 and 16 June 2022 is now available! Please contact me directly if you are interested in attending, places are limited because of the workshop format and the venue itself.
04 April 2022
On 21 April, 5:00 pm BST, I'll be speaking at the Folkwang Photo Talks' new lecture series about my ongoing research into the photographic darkroom. The talk, titled "The Recipe, the Equipment, and the Site of Making: On Learning to See Like an Amateur Photographer in the Darkroom", will review my current methodological approach and present some new material and current thinking on the subject.
The event is online & open to all, more info here.
03 February 2022
I am on the committee of the International Workshop on Recreative Practices in the Art and Humanities taking place at De Montfort University on 15 and 16 June 2022. One of the areas of recreative practice that we seek to focus on is photography and photographic history.
The Call for Papers is below - DEADLINE EXTENDED UNTIL MONDAY 14TH MARCH, MIDNIGHT (GMT)
10 January 2022
WHAT DID THE AMATEUR DARKROOM LOOK LIKE?
Figure 1 (below) was, in many ways, the ideal darkroom. Those of small or medium size commercial venture or of the well-equipped amateur, would have looked something like this. Those photographers who did not have a room to spare at home, however, could purchase one of the many portable devices on the market. These could be erected and then taken down *relatively* quickly, or left to stand in the corner of a room. Models such as those in figure 2 (left-hand side page) were designed for use indoors, but photographers could also purchase models intended for fitting up in the garden or other open spaces. Many took instead a D-I-Y approach, and both the photographic press and the manuals are full of suggestions on how to build a darkroom oneself -- as in figure 2 (right-hand side page), which includes instructions on how to turn a common washstand into a developing sink. When travelling, photographers could instead bring a developing tent along, and there were several products such as these on the market (figures 3-4).
Figure 1. Percy Lund (1902) Photography for Novices: The Primus Handbook. London: W. Butcher & Sons, 44.
Figure 2. Amateur Photographer (26 February 1892), 164-165.
Figure 3. Illustration of the "Eclipse" Ruby tent, reviewed in Percy Lund (1887) Catalogue of Printed Matter and Photographic Materials, 32.
Figure 4. Illustration of W.R. Baker’s “Tourist’s Developing Tent” and “Baker’s Changing Tent,” reviewed in Amateur Photographer (21 July 1893), 40.
Figure 5. Illustration of Claringbull’s portable changing bag and developing tent, reviewed in Photographic News (29 May 1891), 398.