fredag 10. mars 2017

A darkroom to die for, and some 365 snaps

Oh yes. I went outside today, me and the Landy for a drive. A fair bit we went as well, as the Leitz Focomat enlarger I was talking about the other day was over there. Over to big chains of mountains and two fjords, as it happens. We drove straight through one of them mountains, through a quite new hole they drilled not too long ago. We had to drive over the next one, which was snowy and all up there at the top.
We did not have to swim over the fjords, thank goodness!

#007_365@50 Went inside this building to do the paperwork on the Landy purchase, and to try get a good deal on a second car. Smaller one, as it happens...

The bloke with the enlarger is a photographer, as I probably told you a few days ago. Educated and everything, and not only that. He used to be an apprentice under Hans Jørgen Brun, probably one of the best printers inside a darkroom in Europe today. How cool is that?!
Good to see then, that the bloke with the Leitz enlarger is doing business with analogue equipment, and still intend to do so in the years to come. He is doing only medium format and small large format (4x5) so had no use of the 135 size Leitz enlarger, of course.
And what a studio and darkroom this guy is having! I mean it's huge, and on two full floors. 
OK, if I had that kind of space and place I would probably make the darkroom part of it a wee bit bigger, as the studio thing was as big as a football field anyway. But then again, that's just me. Downstairs he had a gallery with a few, or maybe 20-30 portraits hanging around. 
A school close to his home had a photography and darkroom class back in the days but shut it down a couple of years ago for some reason. They were getting rid of everything, so he went over and took what he could manage to stow away, and gave it all away to whoever wanted it. Ten Leitz enlargers were stowed away in his studio at one point, but now he only got this one left. The plan was to maybe use it some time in the future, but as he is moving his studio right now he no longer have the space to store it, and it just had to go.
I picked it up with the promise that I have to give it away to somebody else the day I'm no longer in need of it. That's the spirit and how we should keep analogue photography really going folks. Grab stuff we need (or think we might need) for free, and pass it further on to somebody else another day when the fun is out of the thing, or just for whatever reason.

#008_365@50 I got it from my wife for my birthday. It was great! Warm and thought through and nothing like what I thought it might be. Strange, actually...

Oh, and he pushed a couple of nice darkroom timers on me as well which was very good as the one I got now is starting to have hickups every now and then. It's been OK since I went inside the thing and spoke up in a rough tone though, so it might be alright for another 30 years or so for all we know.
And then I got a loupe, a couple of sets of contrast filters, a brand new set of 8x10 trays and a nice and handy easel and a few other bits and bobs. Things that will come in handy, you know. 

Now, all I need is some spare time to get use of all this stuff!
I got a plan though, so just keep coming back and I might tell you all about it. 

#009_365@50 And the VW got to go! A machine wash first, then a good old bashing with a sponge  and some hot water and soap. It's not sold yet, though. Seems like nobody wants it, but then again we're probably asking too much. We'll see how it goes.


2 kommentarer:

  1. Sounds like you did very well there Roy with the darkroom gear. I like the contract you signed up to as well - to move the stuff when the time comes. Not anytime soon I reckon, though! It'll be good to get it arranged in some sort of permanent room - The Ona Darkroom, eh? That has a nice sound to it, some sort of printer's hideaway where you can clear the mind and work your magic...

    SvarSlett
    Svar
    1. Thanks for your comment, Michael.
      As you now know, the enlarger has found it's new home out on the island and has blown it's first bulb and everything. All good on that one, in other words.
      Me too like this kind of contract, I have to say. But then again it's obviously not this kind of world we live in and people we're dealing with from day to day, where money seems to be the driving force behind everything we think, say and do.

      Slett

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