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Martin Reed
21st November 2009, 10:07 PM
Anybody with a few decades under their belt will probably remember Bill Rowlinson, or certainly some of the stuff he printed. He was the printer who made the evolutionary leap as a printer from hot chrome-drum sweatshop darkrooms into seriously hand-crafting his work, and pointed the way for many other printers.

Bill died last year, and bequeathed his print collection to Photofusion in Brixton, who are now putting a retrospective of his work on show;

http://www.photofusion.org/gallery/photography/exhibitions/current/default.htm

To add to this darkroom celebration, Richard Nicholson's project of photographing the remaining professional darkrooms is to be shown concurrently at Photofusion.

There are a number of discussion evenings & workshops to accompany this, & Steve Brierley, Sales Director of Harman Imaging will be hosting an evening with Adrian Ensor to discuss the evolution of photographic printing over the last 40 years. Silverprint will have available a 'podcast' of the last interview with Bill about his work, recorded by Branka Jukic. See the Photofusion site for full details.

Dave miller
22nd November 2009, 11:11 AM
Thanks for the link Martin, it looks like a good reason for a London trip in the new year.

bill spears
22nd November 2009, 04:42 PM
Yes woul love to see some of this but distance and money prevent me :(

Enjoyed the Project by Richard Nicholson - interesting but a little sad aswell http://www.richardnicholson.com/darkroom/

JimW
22nd November 2009, 07:22 PM
Elf 'n' safety never got there then. Good.

Bob
22nd November 2009, 07:39 PM
Thanks Martin - I have added it to the site's Calendar.

Mike O'Pray
22nd November 2009, 08:19 PM
Elf 'n' safety never got there then. Good.

There was/is some great gear shown here. The above quote covers my sentiments exactly. Well almost. In a hurry to get my thoughts down I occasionally miss out the "l" in Elf :D

Mike

JimW
22nd November 2009, 09:34 PM
Laughed out loud! Some really nice kit, probably used by people who know how to use it, and know how to use it without some jobsworth with his 16th edition IEE regs telling him his electrics are wonky. Craftspeople and artists eh?:slap:
Shame the kit and experience has to 'disappear' Time to be a little evangelical about our obsession? Enthuse others as to the fun and quality available? Thoughts?:cool:

Martin Reed
22nd November 2009, 09:53 PM
The b&w labs that were going to fold have gone already. Most of this lot aren't the disappearing kind... virtually all of these darkrooms are up, running & intend to stay that way. But certainly the trend was underway 10 years ago of larger labs shrinking down to 1 & 2 man bands. With Downtown we've got Sharon Easterling, (trained by Mike Spry) & Mike Spry still has his own independent darkroom here in the Silverprint premises, so in a sense we still have 2 generations to call on.

But it's a time shifted issue - the problem will be some years down the line, as no training is now taking place to speak of, and there is no new generation entering the profession.

JimW
23rd November 2009, 06:11 PM
We have that problem in the (litho) print industry-I'm the baby in the company, and I'm 40.Not a rare thing in this industry. My step-father is an engineer, several years past retiring, and there is no-one with his ability, never mind experience. Training people requres a future-possible mind-set, and if companies are struggling to survive in the here and now....
So I use this point to reinforce my previous comment in this thread-time to be a little evangelical and promote the darkroom. Be positive about the negative?;)

Trevor Crone
23rd November 2009, 07:55 PM
Be positive about the negative?;)

Well put JimW :)

JimW
24th November 2009, 07:59 PM
Yeah, can't think where I got that from. Oh, hang on a mo...........

Keith Tapscott.
28th November 2009, 01:21 PM
With Downtown we've got Sharon Easterling, (trained by Mike Spry) & Mike Spry still has his own independent darkroom here in the Silverprint premises, so in a sense we still have 2 generations to call on.
Martin, perhaps you could persuade them to post here once in a while to help and encourage those of us who are still dedicated to the traditional darkroom.

Martin Reed
14th December 2009, 07:59 PM
.... Silverprint will have available a 'podcast' of the last interview with Bill about his work, recorded by Branka Jukic. ....

The Bill Rowlinson interview is up now;

http://www.silverprint.co.uk/podcasts.asp

Th quality isn't great, but it was never intended to be broadcast, it was the start of notes for a book that never happened. But it's the only record of him speaking about his craft, so give it a listen.

Martin Aislabie
15th December 2009, 05:24 PM
The Bill Rowlinson interview is up now;

http://www.silverprint.co.uk/podcasts.asp

Th quality isn't great, but it was never intended to be broadcast, it was the start of notes for a book that never happened. But it's the only record of him speaking about his craft, so give it a listen.

Its a fabulous listen - a great 15mins :)

Full credit to Martin Reed for the series - its a great idea

Martin

RH Designs
26th January 2010, 12:37 PM
The Photofusion exhibition has been extended to this Friday (it was to have closed tomorrow). I'm planning a visit on Thursday, and looking forward to seeing Bill's prints again. I met him once at his flat, and my overriding memory is of a room seemingly lit by the glowing prints alone. An amazing man.

Timrudman
27th January 2010, 09:32 PM
The Photofusion exhibition has been extended to this Friday (it was to have closed tomorrow). I'm planning a visit on Thursday, and looking forward to seeing Bill's prints again. I met him once at his flat, and my overriding memory is of a room seemingly lit by the glowing prints alone. An amazing man.

I'm so pleased that his prints have gone to Photofusion. I saw them them a number of times on the nicotine stained walls of his flat in his last years and feared they might either be pilfered by someone or end up in a skip somewhere.