Well.  I’ve been and gone and done it.  Whether it was a wise thing or not only time will tell.

Regular readers of this blog may remember that it is a longstanding aim of mine to expose, develop, wet print, mount and frame a photograph.  Hanging on the walls here at Barker Towers are several examples of my work but they all have missed out one crucial stage: the traditional darkroom printing with water, chemicals, potions and other dark brews.  They have all been digitally printed.  I have always shied away from the darkroom for reasons that, to be  honest, hint at a certain lack of moral fibre.  The whole thing seemed, well, just a bit too complicated:  too much kit, too expensive, no darkroom space, takes forever and so on.

The central piece of kit in your darkroom is the enlarger – which fires light through  the negative and onto a photosensitive sheet which you then douse in developer and fixer and, hey presto, you have a photograph.  There are many secondhand enlargers on ebay and other sites but I know nothing about them and would probably be throwing my money away.  Then one day, somewhere, I noticed that a firm was seeking crowdfunding for a new design of enlarger which would apparently knock the socks off everything which had gone before.  I had vaguely heard of the firm, The Intrepid Camera Company. .  They are best known for making large-format cameras and so are in the business of rethinking traditional photographic kit design. It must have been an impulse, but I decided to sign up for their proposed enlarger.  In a curious way I think that it was a subconscious delaying tactic.  I reckoned it would take them months to fund and build and manufacture it so I would be safe for quite a while from the promptings of my inner Ansel Adams.

But the day of reckoning always comes, Intrepid proved to be as good as its word, and a box arrived shortly before Christmas.  I left it where it was for a few days and then found a quiet moment to have a look at the contents.

First things first.  It looks beautifully made, with some bits of it fashioned from, yes, real metal and others from futuristically light materials the nature of which I can only guess at. Being a man of a certain age I would have greatly appreciated an exploded diagram and some basic written instructions but I think I have to accept that these days instructions are what you find on the net and not what you get in the box.  There is indeed a little leaflet included about the control box, but that’s your lot.  It is, as they promised, light, compact, packs down small and leaves me with no excuses whatsoever.

All I can now do is rely on my inner slacker.  (He lives next door to my inner Ansel Adams and believe me those two are bad neighbours.)  I need to buy some basic bits of kit: a lens for the enlarger, a focus finder, some trays and chemicals and so on.  That should take me ages.  Then I am going to have to knock up some blackout curtains for the bathroom.  We’re talking months here.  But I am going to make a public commitment. By the end of this year-ish there will be hanging on a wall of this room a darkroom print that I have shot, developed, wet printed, mounted and framed myself.  Yes, I’m looking forward to it but as in all human affairs we must remember:  it’s about the direction and not the goal.

In order to maintain the high standards of artistic integrity to which this blog aspires I have to admit a little shamefacedly that I have written to Intrepid and asked for permission to use the two photos above but I haven’t yet received a reply. I am sure they’re busy people though and I may not be their number one priority so for the moment I am counting on their goodwill……