In the darkroom at the Missouri Photo Workshop, either magic or ruin would occur. In 1975, in Nevada, Missouri, it was luck that all 400 rolls were successfully developed. All except two, that is. And, as luck would have it, those two rolls belonged to photographer Susan Ford, the daughter of the 38th U.S. President, Gerald Ford. 

“She came with the secret service and all that,” recalled David Rees, who co-directed the workshop with Jim Curley for 19 years. 

Some conspired it was too strange to be an accident. The reality of it, according to the former co-directors, was that her film was more than likely not loaded right. 

“In the darkroom we had no way to know until after it had been processed,” Rees said, “Sometimes if the reels are bent and the film touches itself, it doesn't get developed. The images are gone and just spoiled. Somehow through bad luck, it happened to be hers.”

It’s hard to imagine this workshop in a pre-digital age. Until 2002, photographers would shoot 40 rolls of film, all of which had to be developed in a darkroom at headquarters.   A student lab crew would have to set up a dark room in the basement of whatever auditorium or facility served as the headquarters for the week — or sometimes even the hotel. The team would then start creating some chemistry, both with fixtures and with vibes. 

“It was its own kind of exercise,” Rees said, “It was kind of a yoga mentality in a way. You transported into a time to just think. And if you're in a room with other people there were jokes and songs — it was fun.”

The dark room was filled with the sounds of popping open cassettes, loading film onto a reel and developing the contact sheets and prints. The process was vaguely reminiscent of what is now collecting SD cards, downloading files and moving them into the right folders. As Rees said, it’s “the same sort of idea with a different medium.”

Curley noted that interestingly, the digital age has not sped up the process of the workshop. 

After a day of shooting, photographers would drop off their roles to the concierge. After about 40 rolls were collected, the lab crew would begin to develop rolls for a contact sheet to give to faculty and each photographer for review. The faculty would review the sheets with two different colored grease pencils: One indicated to print it for the exhibit and one indicated to make a slide to project it at night. All of this had to be done before evening presentations. At evening presentations, they would roll the film onto big round trays to show through a slide projector. 

Enforcing the 400 frame rule was easier in a pre-digital workshop world, since photographers physically did not have access to more frames once they shot their final role. Digital introduced the opportunity to overshoot or delete frames, which presented a technical challenge the organizers had to confront. 

“As far as the effect on photographers, we hope that it would be no effect,” Rees said of the transition from film to digital. “That they would still primarily be finding a subject and making good pictures and telling a story. The goal of the technology of the workshop is to be transparent and in the background, so that the real meaning of the workshop isn't disrupted.” 

The dark room crew worked on tight deadlines. Once, it resorted to a firefighter and ER visit. Just ask Matt Campbell, the current canon rep and a former dark room crew member. 

In 1999, West Plains, the crew was doing deep tank processing of film, which was necessary for a workshop of this size, running 16-20 rolls of film at a time using a garbage can to mix chemistry, Campbell recalled. That year, the developing barrel split, dumping 20 gallons of fixture into the carpet. They were breathing in the fixture in an enclosed space while trying to clean it up the best they could, but they ended up taking a trip to the ER to make sure their lungs were okay. The E.R.’s suggestion? “Why don’t you guys all go out and have a milkshake and you’ll feel better.”

Possible snafus aside, if photographers can learn one thing from the film age, it is to be deliberate. 

“It was just a different way of thinking,” said Rees. “A different way of walking and talking. There were some manual dexterity things about the film days that have been lost, if that's good or bad.”