Students in the Darkroom!

It's been a successful week in the darkroom! I've taken my class through in groups to make their first 3 photograms each. (The Concordia University darkroom only has 7 stations, so we had to work in small groups.)

"Group A" was super excited to see their images appear on their test strips in the developer.


"Group B" didn't show the same level of inital enthusiasm, but they made solid images as well!


And "Group C" was a fast working group. Here they are creating their photograms at their stations.

It feels like we've come a long way since my last post last week!!

Beginning of the Semester Darkroom Work

I posted this photo on social media last week with the caption "It's been a minute..."

That's my first darkroom print in about 9 years. It was just a simple photogram as a test for my darkroom photography class. And now my hands smell like nostalgia.

Here are a few more pics of the Concordia University darkroom:

Wide shot.


Chemistry in the middle in the distance, and the wash sink on the right.
With a table for drying film developing tanks/reels in the foreground.


Later that day, I was doing *this* lecture at the University of Minnesota.

I've already caught myself once talking about FILM after heading from a DARKROOM photography class to a DIGITAL photography class just 30 minutes later across town. No one minds, and it actually prompted a bit deeper of a discussion.

On to week 3 of the semester!

Fall Semester Teaching: at a New University!

I posted 3 selfies on social media on Wednesday after I had all three "first classes" of the semester. Here's what I said: "First days of my fall classes! I have 2 different classes at the U of M, and one at Concordia (where I forgot to take a first day photo, so the last pic is after signing my paperwork in July)."

After my Photography class at the University of Minnesota.


After my Graphic Studio class the U of M.


After signing my paperwork at Concordia back in July.

Concordia is a new addition to me. I was able to drop teaching at North Central (which was nice just because it paid the least), and I'm still the only photography professor at Hamline University, but they just don't need me this semester. In the spring, it looks like I'll be at Concordia, Hamline, and the U of M!

And I think the biggest news from these classes so far is that my Concordia class is a darkroom class! Their darkroom (that I posted about in May) is now my responsibility, and I now look over John Marshall's enlarging stations. AND that means my prediction last April about having just taught my last film-based class quickly was proven false!

On the first day at Concordia, I went through the 35mm cameras and passed one out to each student:

From AE-1s to Rebel 2000s.


Heading down the hallway to my first day of class.


Concordia is the first place I've seen that seperates "darkroom" into 2 words.


Notes from our 2nd day of class at Concordia (today). Love that day!

Stay tuned for some darkroom updates as I'm excited to get that up and running again!