Sharing darkroom know-hows: Darkrooms in Berlin

Eli — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 20:04:58 +0000

I have heard it enough times to make me worry: “dark room work will eventually die out or remain a very restricted niche field”. Is it true?
Be as it may, there is a certain tendency to dismiss analog photography and do-it-yourself printing for many reasons, especially because digital photography allows faster results that can be achieved without the need of a dark room.
This post does not intend to defend dark room work or analog printing, because each photographer has her/his own working methods. Even I sometimes use digital technology to print proofs before going to the lab. (It’s a timesaver, especially if you do color analog printing).
However, if you also worry that the craft of analog printing will slowly die, or want to know about it, keep on reading and maybe come back to see new articles on this topic.

This post is dedicated to difficult art of finding a dark room to rent in Berlin.
If you’re like me and move a lot, you have become accustomed to endless google searches for the nearest collective dark room to rent.

I will try to compile a list which is not exhaustive (at least I hope). This means: if you, yes you, the reader, knows of other collective dark rooms in Berlin and feel like sharing your precious address, drop a comment and in the future I will update this list.
Darkrooms in Berlin auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen

Let’s start with the Weinmeisterhaus (a place I love and hold dear). It is one of the last cultural strongholds in the touristy area of Mitte, in danger of being closed down (but resisting for now). There is a collective dark room here, use is free of charges, open Tuesdays to Thursdays from 2 pm to 8 pm. You have to be under 26 to use it though. The house also has a studio to do shootings and a digital “dark room” where you can scan and print your images.

I also know of imago fotokunst (I attended a color dark room workshop there). They have both a black and white and a color dark room to rent (9 euros per hour for black and white and 10 for color).

Another place where you can rent based on the hour is LichtMal open Mondays to Saturdays from 4 pm to 8 pm (here too you can buy a dark room card to save a little on the renting fees).

Then google tells me of Ulrich Hagel. Here, unless I am mistaken, you can rent the color dark room (with out without assistance). For the prices, see on the link.

There is also goLab, where renting of a color dark room is only on a daily basis.

I also found artprints berlin, where you can rent both black and white and color labs. Here too, renting is done on a 24 hour basis and price calculation is quite specific.

Finally, my recent find has been magenta. Here you can rent a dark room (and you work alone) on a hourly basis.

This is pretty much it for my part. There used to be a very cool place (people tell me) way before I moved to Berlin, namely the dark room associated with fotoimpex. However, helas, it is gone.

On the map

Darkrooms in Berlin auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen

Budget cuts and double standards

Eli — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:00:42 +0000

“Unfair and unbelievable!” are the words I have used the most today, along with the display of a sorry face. I know times are tough for everyone, I know times have always been tough in the arts an culture scene in general, but sometimes I still manage to be unpleasantly surprised.
The Weinmeisterhaus, the culture centre for children and young people in the Weinmeisterstraße 15 in Berlin Mitte will be sold. The house has a long history dating back to 100 years, but it is since the end of the 1990s a centre for cultural education of children and young people.
Besides workshops (ranging from dance, theatre, music, photography, video to clothing design), there are also “open” spaces, such as the darkroom and a “white room” (equipped with top of the line scanning and digital manipulation equipment). All is for free, in a very pleasant and inspiring environment.
I haven’t been living in Berlin for a very long time and I don’t get to go to the dark room as often as I’d like, but I have spent some time there. It’s not too common to see so many young people coming to the dark room to work on their pictures, and it is priceless to be able to work in a relaxed environment.

Not to mention that, from my own perspective, it is very hard to find free (or almost) public dark rooms in Berlin. There are a couple of labs, that however charge insane prices per hour. Hardly any photographer I know could afford that. Yes, being a poor artist is an annoying stereotype.

Why would the district parliament close down such a great facility? To be short, it has to do with major cuts that the authorities are going to implement (in line with the federal government’s (stupid) policy in a time of financial recession). The Weinmeisterhaus is only one of the numerous examples of cultural or art centers that will be hit by the budget cuts in Berlin, and thus will have to close down.

If a space like the Weinmeisterhaus is not deemed worth saving, if a space like that, where creativity and curiosity are encouraged, where cultural programs are successfully carried out by a group of dedicated people, why is anything else worth saving? It might sound like an extreme question. But really it is not.

Tags: berlin, mitte, weinmeisterhaus

Elisabetta Lombardo Photography » weinmeisterhaus

Sharing darkroom know-hows: Darkrooms in Berlin

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Budget cuts and double standards