The Home Darkroom and the Freedom of Photographic Production in Britain, 1950s-present
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Westminster
Department Name: Sch of Humanities
Abstract
This PhD will be the first to research the relationship between the home darkroom and LGBTQ+ people's quest for freedom of expression and visual representation in Britain from the 1950s to the present. Using practice-based methods, the student will then also develop new museological approaches to share these largely hidden stories of creativity and agency in the home.
Despite the expansion of commercial processing labs from the 1950s, rigging up a darkroom in the home thrived as a hobby because it offered creative control over and a cheaper way of producing photographs. Following the rise of digital photography and the almost entire closure of commercial labs from the 2000s, the home darkroom has supported a resurgence of interest in film photography. For LGBTQ+ people, however, developing and printing at home also allowed visual records to be created privately. This has historically been crucial because of the risk of embarrassment (or worse) if certain images were sent to commercial processors, which persisted even after partial decriminalisation in 1967. And yet, while the role played by Polaroids (which similarly removed the need for commercial labs) in LGBTQ+ people's lives is well known, their experiences of the home darkroom is largely unexplored.
The project will combine the archival study of LGBTQ+ photographic practices at home with two complementary collecting projects: oral history interviews with LGBTQ+ darkroom users and photographs of and produced in home darkrooms. By working with contemporary practitioners, the student will rethink how to share such hidden stories with museum audiences.
Despite the expansion of commercial processing labs from the 1950s, rigging up a darkroom in the home thrived as a hobby because it offered creative control over and a cheaper way of producing photographs. Following the rise of digital photography and the almost entire closure of commercial labs from the 2000s, the home darkroom has supported a resurgence of interest in film photography. For LGBTQ+ people, however, developing and printing at home also allowed visual records to be created privately. This has historically been crucial because of the risk of embarrassment (or worse) if certain images were sent to commercial processors, which persisted even after partial decriminalisation in 1967. And yet, while the role played by Polaroids (which similarly removed the need for commercial labs) in LGBTQ+ people's lives is well known, their experiences of the home darkroom is largely unexplored.
The project will combine the archival study of LGBTQ+ photographic practices at home with two complementary collecting projects: oral history interviews with LGBTQ+ darkroom users and photographs of and produced in home darkrooms. By working with contemporary practitioners, the student will rethink how to share such hidden stories with museum audiences.
