In addition to Mat’s photography, he has a wealth of
knowledge in regards to traditional darkroom work and photographic chemistry
and he offers to share that knowledge through classes and one-on-one workshops. Since I wanted to learn the
basics of film development, but spend more time on the printing process, I
decided to contact him regarding a one-on-one workshop. He enthusiastically created a two day
workshop agenda spread over the course of two weekends. So, on September 29, I made a trip up to
Findlay, Ohio and spent four hours in the darkroom learning from one of the
youngest and talented working photographers today.
Mat’s enthusiasm for photography and the darkroom is
contagious, which makes him a great teacher.
We covered the basics of developing tanks, film reels and loading film
for development. We quickly moved onto
basic darkroom chemicals and actually developed the two rolls of 120 that I
shot for “homework.” While waiting for
the negatives to dry, we took a quick trip to see Leslie at Imagine That! After
blowing an hour or so geeking out about cameras and film, we headed back to get
working on the negatives. We cut and
sleeved the negs, loaded them into a contact printer and printed contact
sheets. We were now getting to the part
of the process that I was really excited about - creating a silver gelatin
print from a negative that I exposed and developed by my own hand. Even though the final product is the same
(only in the sense of the word), scanning a negative and printing digitally is
nothing compared to exposing a negative with an enlarger onto photographic
paper and then watching the image appear before your eyes. It’s absolutely magical.
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| "Faceless" Camera: Hasselblad 500 c/m Lens: 150mm Film: Kodak Tri-X 400 |
After evaluating the contact sheets, we chose three images
to create working prints from. We used
8x10 Oriental RC paper and went about the enlarging process. The output ended at a total of five
prints. Mat taught me the basics of
dodging and burning and we used that short lesson to make a few
adjustments. I can’t tell you how
exciting it was to see the image emerge after a short time in the
developer. That feeling is taken to a
whole new level after the print has been fixed, washed and dried and you’re
holding it in your hands in daylight. To
know that what you’re holding was hand-made and you had control of the entire
process from exposure to finished product, is a great part of photography that
is generally missed from the today’s typical photography work flow.
The second session was more of the same, but with much more
time spent on final prints. I shot two
more rolls of 120 for “homework” and then I attempted to load the film for the
first time on the reels in the darkroom.
It took a little while, but with a little help, I was finally able to
develop the film. A little more practice
on a dummy roll at home and I’ll have this process down in no time. After developing and waiting for the
negatives to dry, we went through the working print process again. We made contact sheets, decided on two images
and made some working prints. After
evaluating those, it was time to enlarge them and make final prints on 16x20
fiber based paper.
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| "Wounded Wood" Camera: Hasselblad 500 c/m Lens: 150mm Film: Kodak Tri-X 400 |
Last time, I spent the majority of my time souping the prints in the chemistry as I watched Mat operate the enlarger. For these prints, running the enlarger was my job, so that I was comfortable with the entire process from enlarging to developing the test and final prints. I’ve already mentioned that Mat is a great teacher, but I can honestly say that I walked away from the two session workshop confident in my abilities to walk into another darkroom and start hand producing my work.
Watching these enlargements develop before my eyes was more
exciting than the first session. I was
staring at a large print that may be hanging in an exhibit or competition and it’s
something that I made with my own two hands.
The fiber based paper gives the print an entirely different feel and
even though it’s a bit harder to work with (due to curling and longer
development time), the finished product is more archival than RC and it just
has a unique hand-made feel to it. After
going through an archival washing process, we toned the images with selenium
toner. This provided additional archival
stability to the image as well as adding a little bit of punch to the final
print (in terms of tonality).
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| "Lost" Camera: Hasselblad 500 c/m Lens: 150mm Film: Kodak Tri-X 400 |
Of the final two prints, I definitely have a favorite. I can’t stop admiring the beauty of the
silver gelatin and I know that I’ll never tire of producing them. I want to send another thank you to Mat
Marrash for giving up two weekend days to help me out in the darkroom. Mat’s a brilliant photographer and teacher
and is very willing to pass along his knowledge and help others develop their
photographic skills to achieve their photographic dreams. Besides that, Mat’s also a good guy that I
consider a friend. I’m glad I decided to
make the initial trip to the FPP Midwest Meetup for his first gallery
show. If you’re interested in learning
more about developing, printing, alternative processes or large format
photography, Mat Marrash is your guy.
I’ll be getting back into the darkroom soon, so I’ll be posting more
work on this blog in the near future.
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