A look inside San Diego’s new community darkroom.
Rob Cowan is in his happy place under the glow of a darkroom safelight. And he’s in his element when he’s sharing the magic of film photography with other people.
So it’s a bit of an understatement to say he’s a kid in a candy store making prints inside Safelight Labs’ new community darkroom. He’s more like Willy Wonka leading a tour of his factory.
Opening the space has been a dream for the Safelight Labs team, which is led by Cowan and co-owner Caitie Boreliz, ever since they were forced to shudder the operation at their former Cortez Hill location in the depths of the coronavirus pandemic. Since moving to Adams Avenue and taking over the Camera Exposure shop, Cowan and the team have been working toward opening a darkroom that is open for the public to develop, scan and print their own images.
Friday, Cowan officially took the space for a spin.
“I actually couldn’t sleep last night,” he said, flanked by enlargers.
Creating the first print went off without a hitch.
Cowan took a negative from a recent trip to Milan, Italy, where he scaled the Duomo di Milano Cathedral and turned it into a beautiful 11x14 black and white print.
The whole process took about 1 1/2 hours. He dialed in his settings across three test strips and made two separate prints before he was satisfied with the result.
“I could keep finessing this all day,” he said. But, Cowan has a business to run and is working to ensure the space is open and available to the community starting in 2025.
That’s when the real fun begins. Anyone who knows how to use a darkroom will be able to book time and put the facility to use. Anyone who doesn’t know how to use a darkroom will have the opportunity to learn. Cowan leads a series of workshops on black-and-white film development and printmaking.
“I can’t even tell you how excited I am to see the work that’s going to come out of here,” he said.
Stay tuned to this space in the coming days for announcements about booking the Safelight Labs community darkroom space.
