The Darkroom. Dogliani 2022.
*Text and photos: Anja Kaufmann
Focus, release, transport; one roll of film, 36 times the same sequence. Every movement happens
unconsciously and yet with so much attentiveness. My camera is an heirloom from my grandmother’s brother. She travelled the world with it back in the 60s and did what only analogue cameras do in their own special way: Archived time.
Even today, thousands of releases later, when I look through the shutter I can still smell the tobacco from Uncle Josef’s home-rolled cigarettes. A smell from a time when you were still allowed to smoke on the plane and you could only share your visual memories with others weeks after the trip.
Analogue photography is pure excitement. Being aware of catching the right moment and only
knowing if it was captured faithfully when the film is developed. There is a whole other cautiousness behind it, the attention for that moment. Being aware of the here and now with the intention of holding on to it forever, it’s almost meditative.
My love of photography began when I got my first camera for my 6th birthday, a fully automatic Kodak compact with a 3x zoom. It was love at first sight, and it still is today, the inherited up-grade only coming years later. From then on, all pocket meoney was invested in rolls of film. In the tinancially bad months it was 24 frames, 200 ISO, in the good monthe 36 frames, 400 ISO.a fully automatic.
I must have taken hundreds of photos of my budgie Herbert and my grandma’s cat Hannibal III during this time. Years later, when the local Schlecker shop closed down (the only affordable way to develop my Kodak’s input), I had no choice but to take matters into my own hands. My mother, aware of the fast-moving nature of some of my ideas, was sceptical, but she let me do it provided I took care of everything on my own.
My father generously gave me a small corner in his ski cellar where he helped me to place an old shelf and rotten table directly under the ski boot dryer. There was no water connection, but I could fetch the water for the developing process in buckets from my grandmother’s nearby laundry room. Luckily for me, my neighbour Friedrich was an inventor and tinkerer. I knew that he was the only one who could help me find the heart of my darkroom: The enlarger. That summer he became my best friend. Everything else – tubs, guns, photochemistry, red light, paper, filters, developer cans – I collected at flea markets or got from photographers who, trend-conscious, preferred to devote themselves to the modern digital photography. The whole world seemed to be digital, but my heart remained analogue.
Expose – develop – stop – fix.
I spent hour after hour using test strips to determine the correct exposure time and to find out how to avoid water stains on negatives. The smell of ski wax and fixing fluid became the smell of my youth. I exhibited for the first time when I was 13, in the village old people’s home. The exhibition comprised of 24 portaits of the residents, and they were as pleased as I was. Five years later, I started my photography studies in Vienna.
Shortly after graduating, i met Yvonne. After years of friendship and collaboration in her Piedmontese cultural association, she gave me the opportunity to give ny passion the space it had deserved all these years. A specially designed and handmade darkroom in the Alta Langhe. It was created within the old walls of the beautiful Borgata Casale, at the very back, almost inconspicuous and yet full of impact. A plan drawn on a napkin served as the basis for Yvonne, Jörg and the craftsmen to realise the small room, a room which is now home to Friedrich’s enlarger, my flea market finds and the reams of valuable photographic paper.
This place brings old techniques back to life and invites everyone to do the same. Intrested people can book workshops or spend their holidays developing their analogue film, archiving time and storing memories in a very special retreat.
*Anja Kaufmann studies photography and media design, as well as journalism and media management. She designed the first edition of the DWYL labels and curated the project in the following years. Ana now mentors intrested artists and designers who want to be inspired by life in the Langhe through an artist residency.
As a photographer, Anja’s heart beats analogue, which is why she prefers to spend her time in Italy in a room without light; the darkroom at the Serafina Kulturwerkstatt. Intrested parties can book workshops with her at anja@soi-magazin.com.
