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View Full Version : Oldest Darkroom Discovered In France Update



Ted Stoddard
21-Mar-2008, 05:36
Hello everyone I had a post a while back about a darkroom discovered in France from the 1840's or so well I found this website that shows pictures of the inside of this room... This is an amazing discovery and a great find for the photographic community worldwide... here is the link, let me know what you think once you sifted thru the photos on the website... and enjoy.....

http://www.pixoclock.com/client/page0.php?nolog=1&lng=fr&q=ALL&b=69

John Brady
21-Mar-2008, 06:30
Looks more like a meth lab to me, I don't see a scanner or an epson printer anywhere:)

jb

Brian Ellis
21-Mar-2008, 08:02
Just thinking about the fumes made me sick. But it's certainly interesting to see what photographers had to keep on hand to make a print in those days. Thanks for posting the link.

Michael Alpert
22-Mar-2008, 08:43
There is a poignant quality to the photographs. The darkroom seems to be from a simpler lost time. But there are also ways in which the room seems quite contemporary. A darkroom today that is designed for silver contact prints would have great similarities. The red window is very nice. I especially like the presence of all the books. Photographers in those days were literate adults!

blevblev
22-Mar-2008, 18:41
Sorry, but I don't speak French....how do you find a room? How do you lose one? Can someone explain?

Ash
23-Mar-2008, 04:24
Cool.

The site is a real chore but the pictures are nice. Thanks for posting.

Rob Gibson
23-Mar-2008, 07:31
Looks like my Gettysburg Studio.

Ted Stoddard
24-Mar-2008, 19:32
I love the story it speaks volumes to me and reminds me of how life is so precious and in those days as in these days you have to be vigilant on how you handle all chemicals in a darkroom setting back then they did not have the places we have today to dispose of the chems properly and most likely the family didn't want to open the room in fear of getting sick or dying from the fumes... I have always been interested in photography in general and I for one am amazed by the volume of stuff the found intact and most people can not read french but there is an english version if you look hard enough, also this photographer was a pioneer in his own time and helped make what photography is today...If it was'nt for his sacrifices we wouldn't have alot of the processes like we have today...Everyone is entitled to there own opinion and its a free country but keep in mind what we have learned from the old timers... I want to plan a get together in the future in France especially this town where the museum is located so that for the people who are interested in going we can disuss this at a later date... but for now let us enjoy what we have today and not make un-necessary comments regarding the find... I want to thank all the people who sent me PM's and who also knew that this was a big find in our history of photography processes... Wishing everyone all the goodlight!

Once
25-Mar-2008, 11:16
Sorry, but I don't speak French....how do you find a room? How do you lose one? Can someone explain?

:) Bricks laid over the entrance hid the room for years to come - until someone head the idea to see what's behind the wall...

Emmanuel BIGLER
25-Mar-2008, 12:16
An automatic translation of some relevant web pages in French is really funny (double-tower = double-tour in fact to lock a door with two turns of key !) but not so bad, quite readable.
Enjoy ;)
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=fr&langpair=fr%7Cen&u=http://www.niepce.com/pages/page-eve.html&prev=/translate_s%3Fhl%3Dfr%26q%3Dhttp://www.niepce.com/pages/page-eve.html%26sl%3Den%26tl%3Dfr

BigSteveG
25-Mar-2008, 13:05
Looks more like a meth lab to me, I don't see a scanner or an epson printer anywhere:)

jb

A meth lab would be more profitable....hmmmm...