Every year we transform a shipping container into a fully functioning darkroom.

Using red safe lights, the exposed paper is removed from the cameras, and sequentially submerged into large trays which hold the developer, stopper, fixer and water wash.

The developer exposes the image captured by the light reacting with the emulsion, making it now visible. Time in the developer ranges from 1-2 minutes and we are looking for good mid tones. The stopper immediately stops the developing process by neutralizing the developer. Too much time in the developer risks losing a lot of the detail in our prints, and eventually the print will turn all black. Only a short amount of time, a few seconds, is required for the stopper. The fixer stabilizes the paper by removing parts of the emulsion which may continue to slowly react with light over time. Each print should be in the fixer for about 2 minutes. Lastly, the water wash removes all chemicals from the paper.

After the water wash the prints are squeegeed and hang dried. Once dried the prints are archived prior to gifting. Finally, the cameras are reloaded with new unexposed paper to take out on our next workshop.