Growing Up Online

Josh Nero sits for a portrait with one of his film cameras in his apartment on campus on Nov. 3, 2022. Nero is in SF State’s darkroom class, and regularly uses film to shoot portraits and life in San Francisco. (Juliana Yamada / Xpress Magazine)

reality. It can feel a little supernatural, to dip a white, gelatin-covered paper into a solution and watch rich-black tones grow deeper and white highlights create detail. A test strip becomes a guessing game in a way, moving closer to figure out the photo, squinting to discern between subject or background.

However, with a medium like film, supplies have become difficult to come by – especially in mass quantities, due to how expensive they are. Film cameras and supplies that were once at rock-bottom prices have skyrocketed. “We sell a film called Kodak Portra 400 which is normally $15 a roll that’s now $40 a roll,” said Kevin Jordan, an employee at Looking Glass Photo in Berkeley, CA.

With film photography, a common element that most point out as their favorite aspect of the medium is the time, technicality and process of composing an image. From the moment a photograph is taken in film,

“It’s a different shooting experience, you have a finite amount of photos you can take which changes your mindset and thought process,” said Jordan.

Film requires you to be more careful and meticulous. Artists approach the process at a slower pace which causes more thoughtfulness in regards to what and how they’re shooting. Whereas with digital, they can kind of “spray and pray” according to Jordan. Film is the opposite. It makes the photographer slow down.”

Nero begins the process by making test strips of the image. This saves time and paper and reveals enough of the image to discern whether or not the photograph needs more or less time exposed to light by the enlarger. Time is also key in the development process. Nero places a strip beneath the enlarger, flips a switch and waits several seconds for the enlargers beam to switch off.

After repeating the process at different lengths of time, each strip can now be placed into the developer solution. The solution bath portion of the development process has three main parts; developer, a water bath or stop bath and fixer. Placing his strips into the

Josh Nero holds a sheet of negatives up to the light in his apartment on campus during a portrait session on Nov. 3, 2022. Nero, a third-year student, has shot film for years and hopes to make a career out of film photography. (Juliana Yamada/Xpress Magazine)

Josh Nero reviews his prints in his apartment during a portrait session on Nov. 3, 2022. Nero, a third-year student, has shot film for years and hopes to make a career out of film photography. (Juliana Yamada/Xpress Magazine)

Maleah Welsh (left) and darkroom instructor Angela Berry (right) review Welsh’s negatives on a lightbox during class in the SF State darkroom on Oct. 6, 2022. (Juliana Yamada / Xpress Magazine)

“You have to learn to work with what you’ve got — to troubleshoot. In any art medium, problem solving is a really empowering skill set.”

developer bath tray Nero agitates the test strip by gently shaking it as it’s submerged in the sulfite solution.

Silver halides are converted into silver metal, making the invisible, visible. The pale-colored silver halides are then converted into black-silver metal, leaving an image created by the contrast between black and white.

Digital may offer several advancements to photography and a camera’s ability, but sometimes having a 64GB SD card that can hold somewhere around 12,000 images can hinder the creative process.

The process of developing film is a time and labor intensive journey that requires patience, a bit of chemistry and several tools focused to create a single composition. The necessity for a room that offers a slight bit of sensory deprivation seems serendipitous.

Darkrooms have been used to process photographic film since the medium’s inception. Even before cameras were invented, the ability to create an image from light was only possible in a room free of any other sources of light except from one precise point; a camera obscura.

Records date the invention of the obscura at around 400 B.C., which was little more than a simple room with a small hole on one side and a cloth draped on the opposite. When a darkroom is created with the correct light conditions, an inverted image will naturally be cast onto the opposing wall. As time went on, the room was downsized into a more manageable, box-like device, becoming some of the first pinhole cameras. These devices would eventually lay the foundation for what we know today as a modern camera.

Photosensitive silver-nitrate is the key chemical in creating an image. This material allows light to essentially burn an image onto a surface. Older ‘prints’ would have been created on paper, but were faint and temporary. Paper was replaced by glass, glass by metal and metal by celluloid; or what is now called film. The chemical process has evolved but remains largely similar to those of the past.

Even today the modern photosensitive process requires the use of a room that blocks out all other light that would threaten the development of the film. Chemicals like hydroquinone, acetic acid and sodium sulfate are some of the culprits responsible for giving the darkroom their pungent smell. These ingredients are found in most photo developers and are toxic if not used in safe, ventilated conditions.

For as much joy as the medium brings to those interested in it, scrounging for materials can burn a hole in their pocket. “It’s definitely been rough,” said Osborne. “Fuji has not produced film since pre-COVID and Kodak was having supply chain issues like crazy...feast or famine, really.”

People found things that they could do outside, creative outlets that were once tossed aside as too time consuming suddenly found a purpose. Those that may have not previously had time for the art, found time during quarantine.

As frustrating as supply issues may be, they aren’t enough to keep enthusiasts away from film.

“You have to learn to work with what you’ve got — to troubleshoot,” said Berry. “In any art medium, problem solving is a really empowering skill set.” The ability to make your work in any conditions and to adapt — these are some of the values that film photography has the ability to develop.

SF State darkroom instructor Angela Berry pours developer into a tray during her class in the Fine Arts Building on Oct. 6, 2022. As developer is the first step in making prints, the chemical causes images to appear on the photo paper. (Juliana Yamada / Xpress Magazine)