Q: Could you elaborate on this?

A: It’s all about the workflow. All processes are perfectly thought through, in the minutest details. Each negative or paper format requires very specific processing.

For instance: You would like to enlarge a small format negative with a little black frame to 100 x 150 cm. The border alone requires a metal mask in the negative carrier in order to evenly show slightly more than the negative itself. Furthermore, you need a horizontal enlarger, ideally in combination with Heiland Splitgrade, to enable different gradations in one picture. Plus, you need a vacuum board for the photographic paper, huge trays etc. And of course you need a top class lens, an APO-Rodagon N. In case you have another negative format, you need the corresponding lens, just in a different focus length. All these items are included in the darkroom I am documenting here – in very good condition.

Q: And how would you rinse such a large print?

A: In the past, large prints used to be produced for advertisement only, they didn’t need to last long. However, since fine art printing has been increasingly appreciated amongst collectors, longevity has become a major topic; prints now need to be archival. This includes two-bath fixing, washing aid, and adequate, complete washing.

Q: I have seen print washers for 50 x 60 cm, but for large 2-m-prints …?

A: I developed a machine for that, an automatically tilting print washer.

Q: Brilliant construction. Especially the way the water washes both sides of the print at the same time, in steady waves.

A: Yes, and while the machine is busy washing the print, you can go and have a coffee.

Q: Does analog still have its use and justification?

A: There’s this wonderful movie about Sally Mann working in her lab. The prints shown there cannot possibly be produced using any other technique.

Q: But why would anyone liquidate such a perfectly equipped, well-preserved, and fully functioning darkroom?

A: I grew up in a family of photographers, and I have known the smell of fixing bath since I was five, the same time when I got my first camera.

I am thus looking back on more than forty years of darkroom experience, a lot of experimenting and optimizing processes; and, above all, on a lot of fun and enthusiasm. I have poured my heart and soul into my darkroom activities, and I do feel now, that I have done everything in the darkroom that I had always wanted and imagined for my art. But in order to move on with my artistic ideas and take them to a new level, I had to leave these well-known paths and move into a completely new direction.

And yes: It was a hard, a very hard decision to say goodbye to my beloved darkroom, since it meant saying goodbye to an era. Over decades, I had thoroughly developed my darkroom into a perfectly equipped one; even the room itself was built and arranged with the perfectly functioning and smooth production process in mind. When shooting the documentation pictures, I realized that not only did I own everything one might ever need in a darkroom;  I also owned most of it in the best version available.

I know that there are still many technology- and photography enthusiasts out there, which is why I would like to preserve this website as an informative and entertaining reference work.