Darkroom Therapy

[cliveh]

One thing I have noticed about darkroom work over the years is the relief it gives to stress. From direct experience and through talking to others, I have often thought that playing with simple imagery, such as photograms and projection printing of simple objects such as leaves, textiles etc., is very therapeutic. I am not thinking of Photographers or APUG members here, or complicated darkroom manipulations, but just simple outcomes for people who may benefit from an hour or two of darkroom therapy. You are in a low level of illumination, no pressure to produce anything special, the sound of running water, introspective manipulation of physical objects, simple outcomes. Why is this method of therapy not employed more universally?

[Bob Carnie]

Running water makes me want to pee.

One thing I have noticed about darkroom work over the years is the relief it gives to stress. From direct experience and through talking to others, I have often thought that playing with simple imagery, such as photograms and projection printing of simple objects such as leaves, textiles etc., is very therapeutic. I am not thinking of Photographers or APUG members here, or complicated darkroom manipulations, but just simple outcomes for people who may benefit from an hour or two of darkroom therapy. You are in a low level of illumination, no pressure to produce anything special, the sound of running water, introspective manipulation of physical objects, simple outcomes. Why is this method of therapy not employed more universally?

[Mainecoonmaniac]

In a general sense, any creative act is therapeutic. That's why there's art therapy.

[David Brown]

Running water makes me want to pee.

Which can be therapeutic.

[Roger Cole]

No running water in my darkroom now. I work with a 7 gallon container I fill in the backyard from the hose and a holding bath, wash film and prints later upstairs. It works, for now, until I can get the basement built out.

But the point is very valid, and one of the reasons I love it. It's also taken on more therapeutic value for me now than when I first started doing darkroom work in the late 70s in Jr. High and high school and into college. These days I earn my living as a network engineer, and spend much of my free time on the 'net too. Getting away from digital and computers and getting my hands wet is a valuable escape for me, and yet another reason I enjoy analog so much more than digital.

Well, ok, I stream WWOZ from New Orleans over the 'net to my iPhone to listen in the darkroom, but that and my Gralab 450 are the only intrusions of anything remotely digital!