Over the years I've had many friends who shot B&W and maintained working darkrooms at home. Today, the only contact I have with such people is via the 'net. That brings up the question- how many of us do you think there are? Judging by the discontinuence (is that a word?) of photo products, and the difficulty of finding darkroom products locally, it's a pretty small number. So I'm curious- how many people do you know personally that still do B&W darkroom work. Do you have a local camera club- how many people? Does your local high school have a darkroom or photo club? Do you expect to continue darkroom work as long as it's possible to do so, or do you expect to personally switch to digital in the next few years?

-- Conrad Hoffman (choffman@rpa.net), June 23, 2001

Answers

I am the active B&W darkroom worker in my particular circle. However, my local Photo Shop stocks a good representative sample of film paper and chemicals. So there has to be others in the area. I must admit I was never the type to join a club so my assessment is most likely inaccurate. Most of my contact with other B&W enthusiasts is through this forum.I will continue working in the darkroom untill the last silver halide chrystal is extinct.

-- Robert Orofino (Minotaur1949@iopener.net), June 23, 2001.

I have been teaching b/w printing for years. The number of students continues to rise with a high number setting up their own darkrooms. Strange as it seems with all the movement toward digital. However, I believe there will always be a group of us who love black and white and will continue to develop and print our own stuff. How many, who knows. My students range in an age from teenagers to senior citizens. I will always print my own and will take a class or two with photoshop to keep up with my students who are interested. There are several clubs in the area, however, i am not active as i spent most of my evenings teaching. One of our local dealers has a school offering a variety of classes with a majority being b/w . they are doing a great business as is the art center where i hang out.

-- Ann C lancy (aclancy@broadband.att.com), June 23, 2001.

I expect to work non-digitally for as long as I live, and I intend to live forever. So far so good.

-- Wayne (wsteffen@skypoint.com), June 23, 2001.

I would have no problem moving to digital if bw went away except for the fact that the quality of digital bw is so bad compared to color, and I don't think it will ever really evolve into a good product because color is so much more popular. How many times have I heard the words,"just change it to black and white in photoshop!",ugh.

-- mark lindsey (lindseygraves@msn.com), June 23, 2001.

> how many people do you know personally that still do B&W darkroom work.

Personally on-the-hoof? Three.

I have zero interest in digital. That's not to say I don't use digital occasionally; I first played with image-processing software quite a while ago using software downloaded from JSC, but for me digital is simply a quick'n'easy snapshot means to an end such as emailing someone a snap of a camera and things of that sort.

The local for-profit art workshop/school has a couple of photography courses which include darkroom work, but I have no idea how many students they have or how much interest has increased or declined.

-- John Hicks (jbh@magicnet.net), June 23, 2001.

I personally know four. That is including myself. I have absolutly no interest in digital. Not to say that there is anything wrong with digital. I simply enjoy every aspect of wet photography. Have been doing it for years and plan to continue.

-- Greg Gallagher (gjgall1@home.com), June 23, 2001.

I take classes at a local art center in New Canaan CT. The B/W printing classes are always full. Normally you have to sign up as soon as the classes are announced.

There are also usually a few high school kids in each class - most of whom are planning on majoring in photography in college.

I don't know about any of you but I'm pretty optimistic.

-- David Parmet (david@parmet.net), June 23, 2001.

B&W is alive and thriving at our camera club. We have an beginers and advanced group that meet once a month for theory and practical work. Numbers.. probably 20-25 I guess! On Print nights (once a month), at least half the prints shown (50-80 usually) will be B&W's.

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@unite.com.au), June 24, 2001.

My club has 25 members who all work in b&w. The schools are full. The couple of local photo stores all stock lots of darkroom materials. The Del Mar Fair's Photo exhibit had 1500 b&w entries. And to get a good b&w with a computer is much harder than in the darkroom. James

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), June 24, 2001.

This is extremely gratifying. The common theme is that people doing traditional B&W are passionate about it and intend to continue. As for "photo buddies", it seems that if one teaches, takes classes, or is near a photo club, it's no issue. OTOH, once out of that environment, the percentages are rather diluted. I used to work for a company with about 100 fairly high tech people and was still the only one with a darkroom. Just for the record, I've worked extensively with image processing algorithms and scientific CCD systems, but have no intention of abandoning film for my personal stuff. Ever!

-- Conrad Hoffman (choffman@rpa.net), June 24, 2001.

There are only 83 B&W photo enthusiasts in the world. It just looks like more since so many post on these internet sites.

-- Dan Smith (shooter@brigham.net), June 25, 2001.

In Europe, the number is growing

Over here in Belgium, more and more people are interested in taking photography classes and doing their own b&w. A lot of these subsequently setup their own darkrooms (as I did).

Digital has its place, but (at least for me) it 'll never replace conventional b&w shooting, developing and printing. Darkroom work is more than hobby for me, it's a way to relax and leave my day job (I spend the entire day working with *#"@! computers) behind. On the whole I have the impression that diy-b&w work is on the upswing.

Commercially, digital may take over, although I suspect that there will still be a market for high-quality, hand-crafted prints (compare it to painting vs photography, there are still painters around).

-- Werner Van der Cruyssen (wernervdc@yahoo.com), June 25, 2001.

I too have been doing B/W work for pleasure and work for some 30 years. A camera club I used to belong to has about 50 printers/competers that are pretty strong. I won't give up standard darkroom work and am even dabbling with platinum and Kallitypes. If most of the chemicals for regular darkroom become unavailable... I'll continue to mix my own! I have "..Dektol in my blood stream..." so I will not give it up until they pry my rigamortised fingers from my grain focuser! Cheers

-- Scott Walton (f64sw@hotmail.com), June 25, 2001.

Here in the Raleigh/Durham/ Chapel Hill area, we have a separate B&W club that meets once a month. Currently we have about 30 people on our e-mail group and always have 10-12 show up each month. I love B&W wet chemistry and find that I can spend hours in the darkroom working over a single negative.

However, I got a photo quality scanner and printer three months ago to find out what all the fuss is about digital. Well, its cool and a great way to work in color without the hassel of color work in a darkroom. So now I'm shooting color and B&W side-by-side. I've even run out a few B&W images on the printer and am suprised at how good they are. As result, I've just started a similar club just for digital. I foresee, when I'm 80 yo, and living in a retirement home having the room to do digital, but not wet B&W.

I spent a lot of my working life in front of a computer, and some times I don't want to work at home on my machine. But I plan on retiring in the next year or so and then I will probably want to work more with the computer. My $0.02.

-- Gene Crumpler (nikonguy@att.net), June 25, 2001.

At the community workshop where I take classes, the (8-10 per term) black and white darkroom classes (13 weeks, $350) all fill up the DAY they are posted. I have my own darkroom now where I can control quality, chemicals, etc. And from a business standpoint, people are more interested it seems in the days of digital and color to have formal portraits (the ones they spend big $$ on) in black and white-- it's seen as more sophisticated, not to mention archival.

-- MR (reynard75@hotmail.com), June 25, 2001.

I don't think conventional B&W will go away any time soon. At my local community college, classes seem to fill up. At my sister's college, their photography program is always full. Matter of fact, some photography majors don't get the opportunity to take the class they want. (You also have to submit a portfolio to get in and take it as a major).

Quite frankly, when I started getting more serious about photography (more so than a casual shooter), I started with digital. I taught myself more about photography with my digital camera. I learned how to edit photos electronically first. Then I bought a film camera. Now I'm learning B&W. While many people are going from wet work to digital darkrooms, I'm going in the other direction.

I feel that digital vs. film should not be looked at as 'one better than the other'. They both are here to stay. Just like the medium format vs. 35mm argument, I think they both can exist as forms of expression (Yikes! Art-damaged response there!).

-- Johnny Motown (johnny.motown@att.net), June 25, 2001.

Johnny, really good point. I learned more about unsharp masking with the computer than I ever would have with film. You can do experiments and make mistakes with no pain, then apply what works to the wet darkroom. No question that it's not a one way street.

-- Conrad Hoffman (choffman@rpa.net), June 26, 2001.

I'm with Robert, " until the last silver halide crystal is extict". I belong to a small photography club and all members are interested in B & W photography and working in a wet darkroom. We are now hoping to put one together in the new Cultural Arts Center in our town.

-- Stephanie Scanlan (milo1m1@home.com), June 26, 2001.

I agree that the number of B&W enthusiasts is still high, but I suspect that if you look at them as a percentage of the total number of photographers the ranks of black and white photographers have been dwindling steadily. There was a time only 25 years ago when even mass appeal magazines like Popular Photography and Petersen's Photographic (here in the U.S.) carried articles on developer components, mixing your own developers, and advanced darkroom techniques. Those days are long gone, primarily because the readers of those magazines are no longer working in their own darkrooms and aren't interested--they are shooting color and having it developed at the local one-hour lab, or they're doing digital.

To ask me how many people I know who have working darkrooms may not be fair, since I know a lot of photographers--at least 20, maybe more. But I can also say I know several long-time darkroom workers and professional photographers who have gone entirely digital in the past 2 years.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edb@unblinkingeye.com), June 28, 2001.

The monochrome scene in the UK is actually quite healthy. My own two camera clubs Basingstoke & Winchester both have a good number of Monochrome enthusiasts. Also we have a dedicated monochrome circle in the UK called Creative Monochrome who are dedicated to promoting monochrome and giving members a showcase to exhibit their work in the form of an annual yearbook. I always found it quite ironic that many people started on monochrome and "graduated" to colour. Before the advent of the RA4 process the mechanics of monochrome were easier than colour. However as a "wet" colour printer as well as monochrome worker I find that colour is acutually easier to produce a good print. I choose not to use digital because I work with computers 8 hours a day and don't want my work to enchroach on my hobby (obsession actually). The majority of my work is in monochrome and I find the challenge of producing a trully satisfying monochrome print trully stimulating. As regards digital monochrome I have never seen a digitally produced print that could stand up to a well crafted hand made print.

-- Adrian Twiss (avtwiss@ukonline.co.uk), June 30, 2001.

The more computers and hi-tech take over this world, the better a really good B&W print will look and be valued by those visually literate. A B&W print with good content and technique will be around longer (ok, so they are catching up) and the value of something made by hand will increase. Yes, I like to use Photoshop and print out as many prints as I want, but I have more pride in a print that took x number of tries to get the way I want it, and I doubt that this will change.

-- Fred McLaughlin (famcl3@aol.com), July 08, 2001.

At the turn of the century painters were worried that photographers would supplant them. Didn't happen. I use photoshop to play with my color slide film in my free time but wouldn't bother to use it for B/W. In my opinion it is not all about the finished photo it is as much about the process of creating it through all the steps from visualization through drying down the print. The delight is the whole process and the work to get it right (sometimes).

-- Michael Waters (watgo@aol.com), July 12, 2001.