This course will help you master the technical controls and artistic possibilities available in the silver print through the creative use of the darkroom. It is designed for intermediate and advanced photographers who want to become more proficient in technical controls for expressive B&W silver prints.
You will learn how to control density and contrast in both the negative and print through exposure and the use of various developers. You will make full tonal range prints as you explore master printmaking techniques, using various papers, toning and additive chemistry, and archival processing for final print presentation. The goal of the course is to help you realize your vision of an image in a silver print through advanced methods and techniques. We will discuss films, papers, printing requirements for reproduction and exhibition and custom labs versus printing yourself.
There are field trips to make new negatives, but the bulk of the week is spent in the darkroom making prints from your negatives. Bring your cameras, favorite film and papers, some of your favorite negatives and an open mind.

          The goal of this workshop is to give the students the proper tools and techniques necessary to gain exacting control over their negatives. The workshop will begin by introducing students to a variety of negative exposure and development methods. We will start with an introduction to the Zone System, and then adjust it to each individual's way
of working and subject matter. Various film and developer combinations will be demonstrated and explored as well as the issues of the basic characteristics of various film and developer combinations, proper film selection for the subject, determining and controlling subject contrast through exposure and development manipulation. Students will also be introduced to various methods of how to deal with and correct "problem" negatives in the darkroom through the use of post-exposure techniques. Negative archiving and storage will also be a part of this intensive week. Throughout the week, through demonstrations and supervised assignments, students will be producing new negatives using these newly learned techniques, to help them gain a real hands on understanding of how to produce negatives that meet their individual expressive needs through the print.
Following, we will begin to work on the printing process as a means of self expression. We will cover areas such as: the difference between contrast and density and an exact means of determining proper paper contrast and density, paper types, paper/developer combinations, dodging and burning techniques, toners, archival processing, print presentation and storage.  Upon completing this workshop, each student will leave with not only an in-depth understanding of the technical tools they have available, but with a much deeper understanding of how to communicate their unique vision through the medium.

    This workshop is a continuation of the From negative to print workshop. During this class students will be encouraged to approach the darkroom in a more subjective and intuitive way. They will be shown how to achieve a personal vocabulary through their materials by gaining a real understanding of how and why these materials work, and as a result allow them to express themselves more clearly and precisely through their prints.  Some of the subjects that will be covered will be: paper types, paper and developer combinations, contrast control through developer manipulation, additive chemistry, split
contrast printing, multiple toning techniques, how to read a negative, approaches for printing for various media (newspapers, magazines, books, murals, print matching, etc.), and area bleaching. We will also address creative problem solving through understanding how light, film, chemistry and papers effect each other. Students will gain an advanced
understanding of using the techniques they now use such as dodging, burning, masking, etc. The goal of this workshop is that each individual leave with a new attitude towards not only the darkroom, but the expressiveness of the medium itself. Students should come prepared to produce new work as well as bring prints and negatives of recent work.