As I shared in a previous post, in February of 2015 I decided to piece together an Apartment Darkroom. The combination of A) thinking, I HAVE TO PRINT MY OWN SHIT and B) having very little access to a public darkroom in Milwaukee led to: Build your own darkroom and teach yourself to print, woman. Having never experienced the darkroom before or even knowing where to begin, I went to the google machine…

Strangers on the interwebs encouraged me to purchase The New Darkroom Handbook by DeMaio, Worth, and Curtin as a guide. Holla for that dolla. This book is excellent. It walks you through, step-by-step, how to convert nearly any room — kitchen, closet, bathroom, it doesn’t matter — into a functioning darkroom. As I flipped through the text, I made note of layout ideas and began my equipment checklist. Then, knowing what I needed, I went to Craigslist and posted a Wanted Ad, and before I knew it I was driving to the middle of nowhere to pick up “Estate / Acquisition #1” from a ‘retired’ printer named Mike. Mike provided everything but the chemistry to get my darkroom up and running. I was all set. Darkroom v1.0 was born.

Apartment Darkroom V 1.0 was put together in a boyfriend’s extra bedroom. We all know how that story goes. For all intents and purposes, it was great, but it only lasted 4 months — the darkroom, that is. The problem with building a darkroom in someone else’s apartment is you can’t print on a whim at 2am on a Thursday night when inspiration suddenly strikes because, well, you don’t live there. and, also, just never build a darkroom in a boyfriend’s apartment.