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Thread: What were Weston and Adam's darkroom like?

  1. #1

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    What were Weston and Adam's darkroom like?

    Mostly my interest is in sinks and plumbing, but feel free to chime in with other details if you know them....

    I figure Edward Weston probably couldn't afford a big stainless steel sink -- so what did he use? Did he just use regular well water and a propane hot water tank for that cabin?

    I figure Ansel Adams probably had the best of everything. What kinds of sinks did he have and how many linear feet long were they? How exotic was his plumbing? (Sorry, I know there is a bad joke coming from that line.)

  2. #2

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    Re: What were Weston and Adam's darkroom like?

    I don't know about Weston, but there are quite a few pictures of Ansel's darkroom in his three volume series on photography. I also have a Video on Ansel Adam (made towards the end of his career) that has a few scenes shot in his darkroom.

  3. #3

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    Re: What were Weston and Adam's darkroom like?

    I studied photography at the Univ of Oregon back in 1976. The prof there was friends with many of the big names in west coast view camera art and commercial photography. Brett Weston often came up from California to show us darkroom chemistry tricks like how to use Amidol. (Darkened fingernails from using Amidol were all the rage, as print tongs were out of the question. (If you look closely at shots of EW you can see his blacken fingernails.) We actually had Edward Weston's old Ries tripod in our equipment closet for use with the loaner 8x10.

    There's a lot about how Edward Weston worked in his two daybooks. I do remember that he contact printed his 8x10 work, using a bare light bulb. He had a separate building at his rustic place in Carmel for his darkroom.

    I still remember the first time I saw Brett Weston's prints in our crit room. They were amazingly beautiful.

    I also remember reading about Stieglitz. He had a makeshift darkroom in a shed at his Lake George house. In the winter he used a trough to wash his prints, where had to break away the ice.

    These days everyone is into PPI and hard drives.

  4. #4

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    Re: What were Weston and Adam's darkroom like?

    One of the LensWork Extended issues a while back had a video of Kim showing Edward's darkrrom...a neat show and tell!

  5. #5
    Richard M. Coda
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    Re: What were Weston and Adam's darkroom like?

    You can still see Edward Weston's darkroom... if you take a workshop with Kim Weston, or at least arrange a visit. I had the great honor to work in his darkroom at a Kim Weston/Randy Efros LF workshop. It was ironic, though. Kim doesn't use a Jobo (or at least he didn't used to) and they had borrowed one for the workshop so we could develop film quickly and in daylight. As I knew how to use one, I was asked to show some of the less experienced students how to use it.

    Visit www.kimweston.com to contact Kim, or his wife Gina.
    Photographs by Richard M. Coda
    my blog
    Primordial: 2010 - Photographs of the Arizona Monsoon
    "Speak softly and carry an 8x10"
    "I shoot a HYBRID - Arca/Canham 11x14"

  6. #6

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    Re: What were Weston and Adam's darkroom like?

    Kim Weston showed us Edwards darkroom...It's more like a closet off the kitchen/dining room,yes, a hanging light bulb & trays on a counter.
    with three of us in there I couldn't really recall seeing a sink, if so it's small.
    Kim has a newer darkroom with enlarger.

  7. #7
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: What were Weston and Adam's darkroom like?

    Adams' darkroom was primitive compared to what could be put together today. And his enlarger was simply arcane. Vastly better machines could be outright purchased
    while he was still alive. Weston printed in the simplest manner possible, and if you
    actually enlarged one of his negatives it would probably look like mush. I've exhibited side by side with many of Adam's very largest prints, and believe me, they aren't very sharp by today's standards either. The secret of these men was their visual intuition, not necessarily their gear.

  8. #8
    Has Been LF Photographer
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    Re: What were Weston and Adam's darkroom like?

    I believe Ansel's sink was made of wood, lined with metal. He must have had relationship with a good metal shop as much of his darkroom equipment was fabricated to his design specifications, including his 8x10 horizontal enlarger.

    It may have been all metal, I can't remember for sure without digging out some old photos that I can't remember where they are. That happens often with age.

    Don't I remember reading somewhere that Edward Weston used the sun shining through a window in the ceiling to do some of his contact prints?

  9. #9

    Re: What were Weston and Adam's darkroom like?

    The last few posts came as close to telling Frank "there is no magic bullet" as it gets, but in all fairness it mostly true. Ansel had his homemade horizontal enlarger made from a studio camera but upgraded it from separate bulbs to a cold light grid so he did keep up with new technology, sort of. He could have afforded a new Durst 8x10 enlarger with color head, he might have even hinted to Durst about their enlargers and they probably would have given him one.

    With Edward Weston, his philosophy is stated in the movie "The Photographer". He kept it simple and wouldn't be a slave to anything, and always asked what does it mean to me and how much will it cost in terms of freedom.

    I think we see in both men that part which says have restraint, a World war, depression, a second World war, it was a difficult time to be making a living, especially photography which was still emerging.
    Last edited by Turner Reich; 26-Oct-2008 at 17:37. Reason: punctuation

  10. #10
    SF Bay Area 94303
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    Re: What were Weston and Adam's darkroom like?

    When has making a living in photography ever been easy??? K

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