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RE: Black, White and Resolute

in Reflectionslast year (edited)

I miss those days when I learned how to develop b&w film on a development pot, putting the film inside a plastic helix inside a black sac to avoid light, adding the helix into the development pot, adding the developer and fixing liquids, and waiting for the final images to slowly appear while the film was drying. There was magic in that process although some of the shots were far from acceptable.

You had a chance to understand the process, experiment with it and experience how everything was done. Today, smartphones do everything, it is good as the price has dropped and "reasonable" shots are there for everyone, but we have lost the chance to learn about photography.

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I have never developed film, but I granddad had a darkroom in his wood-working shed. He even had a color enlarger, which was very rare at that time. I would have liked to have learned, but I only started getting into photography when I was 18ish, years after he had passed.

I miss those days when I learned how to develop b&w film on a development pot,

I think that part of the "miss" is the methodical process. Like a meditation with checkpoints where something is actually experienced.

but we have lost the chance to learn about photography.

And learn about scarcity and cost.