Editorial
On Keeping a Public Darkroom
Claudine Rose · March 8, 2026
A short essay on what it takes to maintain a community darkroom — and why we think it's worth it.
A public darkroom is not a complicated thing to run, but it is a stubborn one.
Chemistry has to be mixed, replaced, and disposed of correctly. Enlargers drift out of alignment if you breathe on them wrong. Trays get scratched. Tongs vanish. Members forget how to load a reel.
Why do we keep at it? Because the darkroom is one of the few places left where time is required — where a person who has spent the afternoon making a print is genuinely a different person at the end of the day than they were at the start.
That feels worth keeping going.