Black & white film developing *

Do you remember, how – in a previous post – I complained about the slow pace of an analogue camera? Do you remember my grand stating that the digital camera will 4ever be the best option? Well, I still think so, however, I have opened up a bit more unto the joys of developing my own black and white film and enlarging some of my negatives.

Picture a cold and dark … darkroom. The time when the lights are turned off, when you open a roll of film, feeling the surface around you for scissors to cut off a bit of the film, when you feed the film into the plastic spiral, it’s almost as if the time itself had stopped. The repetitive movement of the spiral making a clicking noise takes me to a Zen place. I have only developed my own film twice or three times now, fighting with it every single time, cursing and sweating to get it right, but it still somehow felt peaceful to me. A transcendent feeling I don’t often get.

Maybe it’s something to do with not being able to use my sight – which is pretty bad on a normal day, I have worn strong prescription glasses all my life – and having to rely on my hands and my hearing. Feeding the film into the spiral is my favourite part of the process, less so is the tilting of the developing tank however many times you have to depending on the chemistry instructions. You have to keep a track of your counting, of time passing by, and I often drift off into day-dreaming not being sure if the required 10 seconds has already gone and when the next round of ten seconds starts again. And time matters in this process. The chemicals need to interact with the film, you can’t rush them, at least you shouldn’t (you can add warmer water to speed it up I guess).

Being gentle and patient matters. Two of the characteristics I don’t possess, but I’ve managed so far to develop my own black and white film, and I’m very proud of that.

* I started this entry in April 2023, but completed it in October 2023. Looks like I’ve embraced the slow-life style 😀 In the meantime I’ve done many courses on alternative photographic processes (Lith, Mordançage, Caffenol, Cyanotype, Cyanolumen, Pinhole Camera Photography) and improved my film developing skills.