What New Lab Meant to Us..

[Bernice Loui]

Happened across this story about The New Lab in San Francisco.. Reading this story brought back a flood of memories from that time, friends, place and much more.

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"Then New Lab moved to Bryant Street and had ample parking! More and more photographers and assistants started to linger and chit chat. We all became more familiar with Wendy, Paul, DanO, Lynn, Bill, Hugh, and Brian. New Lab had become the town square for photographers -- a place to unexpectedly bump into an old friend, or an assistant's opportunity to meet a new photographer. And for many years, they New Lab generously provided office space for both the APA and ASMP, in exchange for newsletter ads. They became a regional hub.

My friend Tom McAfee remembers going to the lab being one of the most pleasant parts of his day. "I know going to the lab was the highlight of (my dog) Sam's day -- he would somehow know and actually sulk if I went without him -- but who could argue with being fed treats by the likes of Wendy, etc.? They were always cutting the edge, and willing to share what they knew. A really, really great business model."

For Hector Herrera it was his first job in the photography world. "I really learned about professional photography. It was always an experience to look at the work of the best photographers, not only in the bay area but from all over the country,"

*They were just the best film lab I've ever dealt with, including my six years in Manhattan.*

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http://christianpeacock.com/christianpeac/2009/06/what-new-lab-meant-to-us.html



Bernice

[Tin Can]

Great tale, Bernice

Telling our stories is Art

29 years

I can almost see that print

[Drew Wiley]

Quite a bit of photo activity was going on at that intersection. Gasser was still the big all-purpose photo supplier and equipment house nearby. Eventually Calumet opened just five minutes down the road. Studio Supply and Darkroom Supply were also just a few blocks away. An even better equipped lab was nearby but mainly for sake of its own significant studio operation. A quality photo gallery was down the road for awhile. Downtown was right there. End of an era. The labs are starting over where all refugees tend to end up - where nobody else wants to live. But they're niche businesses. "Full service" labs as we once knew them seem to be a thing of the past.

[Bernice Loui]

Gasser was Foto hardware central. They had just about everything. Darkroom stuff downstairs, ground entrance level had 35mm stuff to the right, LF and etc on the left. Upstairs was rental, cinema and... Manufactures would put on shows of their new stuff at Gasser and ...

Sammy's was south on 3rd street not too far from Color Three labs, side ways up south of market was Oscars which still processes film today, Kimbo color labs. Up town was Faulkner, Chromeworks, Color Metro and...

Opening of Calumet was a big deal back then.


The SF bay area had it's own Foto PR publications and more..

Found a residual Push process pad in a pile of old E6 stuff..
215289


Really was the end of an era :(
Bernice

[Drew Wiley]

Traffic wasn't as bad back then, and I could just look out my office window and see how dense the cars were on the Bay Bridge, and slip right over the Bridge into that neighborhood to pick up 8X10 film or whatever, and get back all within my lunch hour. Now you'd need a time clock based on carbon 14 to get a long enough lunch hour to do that. And there were some very knowledgeable sales people around then, another seemingly extinct species these days.