What were Weston and Adam's darkroom like?

[claudiocambon]

A few unconnected thoughts:

One of the things to keep in mind about these guys having stuff just this side of homemade is that a) what they had worked well and b) did not need to be replaced for a long, long time. A simpler, more mechanically oriented world, where any number of things could work: cheaper, easy to modify or repair, and less financial turnover/waste of resources. Still today, the only piece of durable equipment I have ever had to replace in my own b+w darkroom has been my digital timer; everything else will probably outlast even my desire to use it. In our age of rapid obsolescence (do you espy the garbage can at the end of the checkout counter? it's for what you just bought!), it's hard to imagine this sometimes.

There is a priceless letter from Stieglitz to Weston congratulating him on getting the Guggenheim, on being able to upgrade his gear, and then spending the whole time giving this account that veers between comedy and self-pity about his own setup, from sagging bellows held up by a string tied to the ceiling to fixing his prints out on the fire escape. I highly recommend digging it up, although I don't remember where it is.

[Deane Johnson]

I suspect most of these photographers were extremely poor and had to struggle to own what they did.

[timbo10ca]

I believe Weston used a 3x4" Graflex before he had the 4x5" Graflex.

There are two main approaches to making enlarged negatives with a camera. One is to make a small contact print and photograph it with the larger camera as one would for any kind of standard copy work. Another would be to use a film interpositive, either by contact printing the original onto another piece of film and photograph it on a light box, or to photograph the original neg on a lightbox to produce the interpositive, and then contact print that to make the enlarged negative. I'm not sure which method Weston used.

I figured it was something like this, but wasn't sure what he would have used as a lightbox- were they common/inexpensive back then? I thought maybe a window, as long as ther was nothing outside and the glass was pristine- this seems unlikely in those mexican houses he lived in. Photographing a print seems even more unlikely to me, considering his seemingly strict use of natural lighting, which would be difficult to get even across the print to photograph (especially considering the smooth appearance of his photographs, with concise lighting detail). Enlarging using his 8x10 is another testament to his skill with a camera.

[David A. Goldfarb]

You can get fairly even lighting for copy work by photographing in the shade, as on the north side of a house. For duping from a negative, he could have used a window, maybe with some paper behind it for diffusion. He also could have used a retouching stand, which is one of the items that is shown in pictures I've seen of his darkroom--

http://www.apug.org/forums/forum43/1...tml#post583355

Here is a more detailed description of a retouching stand--

http://chestofbooks.com/arts/photogr...Continued.html

[timbo10ca]

You can get fairly even lighting for copy work by photographing in the shade, as on the north side of a house. For duping from a negative, he could have used a window, maybe with some paper behind it for diffusion. He also could have used a retouching stand, which is one of the items that is shown in pictures I've seen of his darkroom--

http://www.apug.org/forums/forum43/1...tml#post583355

Here is a more detailed description of a retouching stand--

http://chestofbooks.com/arts/photogr...Continued.html

Very cool. Man, I envy those who got to meet him..... He's in the top 3 for my imaginary dinner party. And apparently, he could really party ;-)

[Terry Hayden]

For anyone interested in seeing it, here are a couple of snapshots
of Weston's darkroom.

John Sexton arranged for a visit to Wildcat hill for a workshop I
took. It was amazing!

As an added bonus Richard Garrod stopped by and showed us
some of his work.

Later,
Terry
www.terryhayden.com

[Mark Sampson]

Remember that these guys worked when all our modern convieniences weren't available, or even thought of yet. Steiglitz and his pupil Strand basically came out of a 19th-century tradition, where you did everything by eye. Weston's approach of voluntary simplicity was an adaptation of that tradition. Those three didn't even use light meters, at least Steiglitz didn't... there were none when he was working. Adams had higher technical reqirements than the industry could supply (in the '30s and '40s) so he made a lot of his own gear... and his writings set a standard of technique that the industry eventually caught up to. I'm very pleased to have an easy-to-use spot meter instead of an SEI, for example.

[Frank Petronio]

Thanks for the pictures Terry, those are EXACTLY what I wanted to see! That looks like a wonderful place to work actually.

Mark makes a good point. I bet they did most of their photos with one sheet of film too, in the Daybooks he mentions a "ruined negative" I think, and that implies there wasn't a number two in reserve.

They were using wooden double darkslides by then weren't they?

The most impressive thing to me is that Adams changed his 8x10 holders in a sleeping bag in the Summer....

[MIke Sherck]

Simplicity has its virtues; in his Daybooks,for example, Edward Weston mentions discovering that a pesky light leak he fought in Mexico came from a warped back on his camera, and he "straightened" it, although he doesn't mention how. Similarly, he mentions several times searching for light leaks, patching bellows, etc. Weston was pretty poor his whole professional life and lived in a time where the technology of the day meant that individuals had a fighting chance of fixing their tools when needed.

I also recall Weston describing how he wanted to make another print but regretfully put the expensive roll of "palladio" paper away instead, because of the cost. It is my impression from reading his Daybooks that there were relatively few "backup" negatives as well. One of Charis's stories about their adventures describes how she left Weston in a meadow in the morning with half a dozen holders, then later went back to bring him lunch and brought the other six holders. To me, that means that (at that time, anyway,) Edward had twelve film holders, and that was sufficient for a day's work. Not much room for dupes in that load, I think!

Mike

[Donald Miller]

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.)

Depends at what time in Weston's life you are speaking of...I have it on good authority that he was so poor in Mexico that he could not afford to purchase trays and used a rain coat to hold his chemistry.