Under New management
Welcome to the District Darkroom News section. Short items of interest to film photographers will go here and I’ll be adding a blog section for longer articles such as experiments with different films and developers.
Basically this post is just to let everyone know that we are still here, still available for hire and workshops and still aiming to provide you with a fun, traditional, completely AI free, film photography experience.
I’m Bernie and I have taken over the day to day running of District Darkroom. Jade has moved off to the country but I will be trying to entice her down to Melbourne for workshops when I can. Also, don’t be surprised when you visit at some stage soon and the branding looks a bit different …
My background in recent times has been in graphic design and taking work photos on digital (boring I know). I have been using photoshop since version 2.5 and I’m really ‘meh’ about all the new ‘features’. I am fanatical about film photography though and have been shooting film since the eighties. That has inspired me to take over this fine establishment and let traditional film photography and darkroom craft re-consume me and lead me away from the path of AI-induced-stupor and Canva-Hell. Back in the day (in this case, ‘back in the day’ means back when we made film and paper in Australia) I worked at Kodak in Elizabeth Street in Coburg, so I feel a real sense of coming home being back in the ‘burg and back in film and the darkroom. At Kodak I worked in the tech support area for photo products and was involved in the Q-LAB program for E6 prolabs around around Australia. I have also worked in E6 labs keeping the chemistry in line and feeding film into the beasts. I have developed film and printed in black and white since high school.
I’m really keen get more events happening for the film community in Melbourne, one of the first things on my list would be a meet-up to give film photographers a chance to share printed photos as opposed to sharing on a phone screen. Hit me up on the contact page if you are interested, or keep an eye out here or on the socials for announcements.
I have a big list of half formed ideas including:
Office times, when i’ll be about at the darkroom if you want just a little bit of support while you print (not in-depth though, book a workshop for that).
Pinhole and box brownie workshops
Running split week workshops after work hours over two weeks (How to develop film week one, make a contact sheet and do your first print week two)
Custom mid-week workshops and special prices if you drag a friend along to a workshop.
As mentioned in the top of this post, a blog to look at films, developers and all things of interest to darkroom inclined film phtographers.
a monthly newsletter so you can get all the news items and blog posts summarised in your in-box.
If any of these things strike a chord with you, subscribe on the home page or hit me up on the contact page.
To see some of my film photos, I’m on insta @berniecram or on the web at berniecram.com/blog