The experience of developing photos at the art gallery was much more of a serious task compared to other visits. It (arguably) involved more precision and fine-tuning than the other mediums, as one small slip-up in the exposure or development stage could ruin your whole photo. Due to this, it was much more fun to see your final result, as if you had completed all the steps with this type of precision, it would be much more rewarding to see a well-printed photo in your final product.
It was also eye-opening to see how much work went into developing photos back in the day, as all the machinery and equipment used looked fairly sophisticated and expensive, and it would have been interesting to learn about the history of the equipment and how they came up with the method of using the chemicals. The hardest part of the development process for me was the exposing stage, as the first print I made came out a solid black, making it hard to tune the time to expose for the right amount of time.
On the other hand, at the end when the central theme of space was being incorporated, my print came out very well, very clearly displaying a space ship travelling through some point of the galaxy. The darkroom was very odd to use, as I am very accustomed to taking pictures with my phone and getting a result right away. Although darkroom does still produce a final picture, it takes much longer to create, but could also mean more since you put more effort into creating a perfect final product. The way that the photo is taken is also relatively the same, using a lens to capture light.
My experience was a little different though, as no colour was used throughout the whole process, giving it another difference to the photography I use. At the end of the whole process, you would have to sign your photo, which you do with your name and date on the back of the photo.
JD Shoniker
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