Developing Binghamton Photo at Bundy

“I remember the day I went to Sam’s Club and dropped off my film and they said, ‘Hey, this is the last one. They’re picking up the equipment tomorrow.’ And the next day Kodak came in and grabbed the machines and that was it.”

That is how Olivia Tonin - Exhibitions Designer at the Bundy Museum of History and Art, and Darkroom Director of the Bundy’s new Binghamton Photo Community Darkroom Project - sums up the end of an era. She recalls that places to develop film in Broome County used to be abundant but, now that most of us use digital photography, even the pharmacies dropped the service. Artists, hobbyists without a darkroom, or anyone wishing to photograph on actual film were left to send their negatives far away or otherwise fend on their own. (Tonin has some horror stories about the half-hearted film developing services that Walmart, CVS, and others do still offer which involve not only sending the negatives far away but also keeping the cost down by not returning the negatives or exercising the questionable right to destroy any images they consider “inappropriate” – such as, “human nudity in any capacity.”)

“Rather than a luxury,” she says, “a community darkroom became a necessity for anyone who wants to continue enjoying film photography.” Talks had begun in the planning for one, even before Olivia joined the Bundy three years ago.

So, a new era begins. When the Bundy Museum acquired an additional building, creating what Tonin refers to as a “campus,” Binghamton Photo began to develop. The Bundy’s photography component will be presented to the public with an opening reception the evening of February 25th. The event introduces the three-story space that houses the darkroom in the basement and a top floor of studios for artists selected by an interview process. In between, the main floor is the home of galleries for both permanent and rotating photography-specific exhibitions.

In the current juried show, visitors to the main floor will see images by local photographers that are all shot on film and all taken within Broome County.

The two permanent exhibitions to be unveiled at the opening reception includes the Ansco – Eye on Binghamton presentation, which depicts the storied history of the Binghamton-based film and camera company that once rivaled Kodak, produced the first camera and film used in outer space, and made Binghamton an indelible part of the history of photography. The other new permanent display is a detailed reassembly of the lab/darkroom/broadcasting booth of Richard Phillips, the CBS news affiliate broadcaster for Broome County who, Tonin explains, “exclusively shot and processed all the local news from the 1940s through the 1970s.”

Almost all of Binghamton Photo’s darkroom equipment - including spools for winding the bulk film - was donated by photographers in the area, “and a huge amount of those donations are from Broome Community College and communications professor Jason Detrani,” Tonin points out. This allows the not-for-profit to offer classes in basic darkroom use and to pursue plans for future classes in “experimental film processing for all ages.”

The darkroom developing is full-service and is available to every resident of Broome County without requisites. “There will be an inexpensive option where you can process your own film and a slightly more expensive option where we’ll do it all for you and you can just drop it off and pick it up,” Olivia explains. This begins, for now, with black & white processing, and the project is expected to expand to add color processing in the next few months. Tonin explains that “the agitating of the film and the meticulous science aspect” is not every film photographer’s cup of tea - or pan of acid. “That’s why we offer them options.”

Binghamton Photo is located at 32 Cedar Street in Binghamton. The darkroom will be open noon to 7pm on Tuesdays and noon to 6pm on Fridays and Saturdays. The opening reception for the Darkroom Project, the photography galleries, and the juried photography show begins Saturday, February 25th at 7pm; the juried show will be on exhibition for two months. For more information visit binghamtonphoto.org or call (607) 761-3978.

(Photos by Olivia Tonin)