All time slots BST (UTC +01) 

THURSDAY 08 JUNE 2023 

09:15-9:45: Registration 

09:45-10:00: Opening and welcome: Sara Dominici (Westminster) 


10:00-10:40: KEYNOTE LECTURE (chair: Sara Dominici)

Jennifer Tucker (Wesleyan University) - "Diseases of the Darkroom" in the Long Nineteenth Century

10:40-11:00: Discussion 


11:00-11:15: Comfort Break 


11:15-12:00: PANEL ONE: BODY POLITICS (chair: Lucy Soutter, Westminster) 

Rowan Lear (University of Cumbria) - A Hot Vitiated Atmosphere: Heat, Light and Labour in the Darkroom

Kirsty Sinclair Dootson (UCL) - Industrial Manoeuvres in the Darkroom: The Grunwick Film Processing Laboratory Strike  

Ajamu X (Royal College of Art) - Darkroom Frottage 

12.00-12:20: Discussion 

 

12:20-13:30: Lunch (provided for speakers and chairs only) 

 

13:30-14:15: PANEL TWO: MEDICINE AND SPIRIT (chair: Kelley Wilder, De Montfort University) 

Beatriz Pichel (De Montfort University) - The Medical Darkroom: The Historical and Epistemological Significance of Photographic Laboratories in Hospitals ca.1900  

Junko Theresa Mikuriya (University of West London) - The Darkroom of the Soul  

Efram Sera-Shriar (University of Copenhagen) - A Ghostly Challenge Accepted: William Marriott and the Sunday Express Photographic Test 

14:15-14:35: Discussion 

 

14:35-14:50: Comfort break 


14:50-15:35: PANEL THREE: AGENCY AND RESISTANCE (chair: David Cunningham, Westminster) 

Jo Gane (Birmingham City University/De Montfort University) - Photography Before the Darkroom: The Laboratory/Darkroom of Dr John Percy  

Núria F. Rius (Pompeu Fabra University) - The Laboratory in the Workers' Atheneum: Photography, Agency, and Barcelona's Working-Class (1910s-1930s)  

Uschi Klein (University of Brighton) - The DIY Photographic Darkroom in Times of Opposition During Romania’s Communist Era (1947-1989) 

15:35-15:55: Discussion 

 

15:55-16:10: Comfort break 

 

16:10-16:40: PANEL FOUR: DARKROOM PRACTITIONERS TODAY (chair: Lucy Soutter) 

Carô Gervay, David Whiting, and Jonathan Blower (The Gate Darkroom) - Light and Time Unite: History and Practice of the Gate Darkroom  

Justine Varga - Staging Photography 

16:40-17:00: Discussion 

 

17:00-18:00: Drinks Reception 

FRIDAY 09 JUNE 2023 

09:30-10:00: Registration 

 

10:00-10:40: KEYNOTE LECTURE (chair: David Cunningham)  

Michelle Henning (University of Liverpool) - Keeping Out the Fog: Atmospheric Contamination and Control in the Industrial Darkroom 

10:40-11:00: Discussion 

 

11:00-11:15: Comfort Break 

 

11:15-12:00: PANEL FIVE: DARKROOM AND ENVIRONMENT (chair: Sara Dominici) 

Sean Willcock (University of Oxford) - Darkroom Ecologies: Tents, Travel, and Tropicality in John Thomson's Photography and Writings  

Elizabeth Watkins (University of Leeds) - Photographic Experiments and Expedition Darkrooms in Polar Climates  

Chris Balaschak (Flagler College, St. Augustine, FL) - Detoxifying: Embodiment and New Materialities at the Visual Studies Workshop 


12.00-12:20: Discussion 


12:20-13:30: Lunch (provided for speakers and chairs only) 

 

13:30-14:15: PANEL SIX: PRACTITIONERS-INDUSTRY RELATIONS (chair: Kelley Wilder) 

Michael Pritchard (Royal Photographic Society) - Exposing the Darkroom: How the Space Evolved to Reflect Changes in Amateur Practice  

Zsuzsanna Szegedy-Maszák (Indiana University/Hungarian National Museum) - Women of the Darkroom: The Veracity of Advertisement Images  

Anja Hysvær Langgåt (Norwegian Museum of Cultural History) - From Darkroom to Centralized Processing of Colour Portrait Photographs in the 1970s 

14:15-14:35: Discussion 

 

14:35-14:50: Comfort break 

 

14:50-15:20: PANEL SEVEN: HISTORIC DARKROOMS (chair: Sara Dominici)  

Franziska Lampe (Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich) - Mobile Darkrooms in Art Reproduction: The Hunt for Images and the Need of Minimising Effort  

Ricard Martínez Teruel and Susanna Muriel Ortíz (Arqueologia del Punt de Vista) - Mineral Memory: Recovery of the Chemical Products Collection from the Darkroom of Photographer Jaume Ferrer Massanet (Palafrugell, 1872-1922) 

15:20-15:35: Discussion 

 

15:35-15:45: Comfort break 

 

15:45-16:15: PANEL EIGHT: FROM THE WET TO THE DIGITAL DARKROOM (chair: Lucy Soutter) 

Britt Salvesen (LACMA) - The Jerry Uelsmann Effect  

Catherine Troiano (V&A) – Photographic Darkrooms and Digital Practices: A Contemporary Evolution 

16:15-16:30: Discussion 

 

16:30-17:00: PLENARY DISCUSSION led by Kelley Wilder 

with Sara Dominici, Michelle Henning, Lucy Soutter and Jennifer Tucker