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As we cleared out the junk, I found an ancient
developer stained copy of Camerawork's magazine;
an issue concerned with community photography
(with the editorial written by Paul
Carter who we are pleased to have a contribution
from him) The magazine changed my whole working
approach to the extent that I even made two mobile
darkroom kits from the plans they included. Everything
I needed was now in one box which I could chuck
into the back of my car enabling me to set up
a darkroom anywhere. This was 1984, the year the
the first Macintosh was launched; this machine
would again be another turning point for me nearly
a decade later.
Accessibility
is still my main priority and that is never easy
with photography being very much equipment and
time dependant. There are numerous occasions when
we are asked to run a photographic workshop in
a day or even a half a day! Also many groups we
work with are unable to visit our darkroom. No
problem with a digital camera and computer. If
a higher quality output is needed, and lets face
it, affordable digital cameras are just not there
yet, then the pictures are taken in colour, scanned
into the computer and manipulated at will; even
changed to black and white.
Having
a digital darkroom alongside our conventional
chemical darkroom has been a natural progression
for MPMW. Because we rarely use photographs by
themselves, usually they are displayed with text
within a layout, the fiddly use of dry transfer
lettering surgical scalpels and cans of spray
mount in the hands of 6 year old would be unthinkable.
Today even that 6 year old can safely, digitally
cut and paste to their hearts content using design
industry software.
Although
our digital cameras can only store eight high
quality images before they need to be downloaded
to a computer, this forces users to think more
carefully about the composition of the images
they're making. This also applies to digital collaging
where images can be endlessly fined tune until
just right. By contrast, make a mistake in the
darkroom and you'll be forced to rip that print
up and bin it. Where as there are no mistakes
in the digital darkroom just undoes. New technologies
haven't made MPMW projects totally hassle free.
Because a great deal of our work is outreach and
we often have to lug around 350-400lbs of equipment,
up to four times in any one day (our budget doesn't
stretch to laptops at a fast enough speed) as
well as running a workshop, hassle can take on
a new meaning.
On
the over hand we've been recently working on summer
playschemes with classic quotes coming from the
young people: "You're computer's slow", "The prints
don't look as good as they did on screen" and,
"What? £2000, that's not much for all this
computer equipment". Computer technologies don't
cut much ice for them, but I know for a fact,
the same group of young people would be speechless
on first seeing a photographic image appear before
their very eyes in a darkroom developing tray.
The
bottom line is not dependent on the technique
or the equipment you use (to much importance has
been put on these already) it's the process of
creativity that is produced that will always be
the most important. For me as a community media
worker, digital technologies are too attractive
to pass-by.
Martin
Reid (Project Co-ordinator Mount Pleasant Media
Workshop) 1999
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