Lot of work - not much to show.

Managed to fit a day in, I've put in three late finishes at work so was given a day off.  First a visit to the DIY for wood and some vinyl flooring for the wet dark room then down to work.  I spent much of the day filling the joins in plasterboard and sealing around the top of the walls to make them light tight.  I also finished off the door apertures by facing them with some timber.  I'm not having doors to save space, instead I will have a couple of curtains in the corridor.

I managed to find some timber that was a similar size to the planks on the ceiling so next job was trimming broken boards.  Where does all of the muck come from when you are hitting the boards with a hammer a chisel, must have been 150 years worth of dust and soot up there!  I just bought one pack of boards to make sure they worked.

Sanding, sanding and more sanding

Well I have finally finished sanding the ceiling and the walls - at last.  Feel like I have been living in a dust ask and goggles.  After spending ages sweeping up, then letting the dust settle, I managed to PVA one and a bit walls before finally ran out of energy.

Everything aches from holding a random orbit sander at arms length above my head for hours!!!

Logo

I've been trying to come up with a logo.

Comments or suggestions would be appreciated

Sanding, sanding, dust and sanding.

Straight to the mill from work again for another three hours of fun filled sanding.  Now have nearly half the ceiling done and  one wall.

Dust storm!

Dust storm

Back to work today, but by mid afternoon had done everything that I could, so I sneaked off early to do some more work at the mill.  Spent the first hour cleaning up, getting rid of offcuts and bits of plaster board.  And lots of sawdust and plaster dust!

Then the worst job in the world, sanding the ceiling,  Spent three hours and have about a quarter done - such fun!

We have power!

Well I made it to Friday and the energy, ad the money, have just about run out.  T was Andy’s second day on the wiring and by the end every thing worked perfectly – 5 double sockets down each side of the  studio/gallery. Sockets on each side for overhead spots, 4 double sockets in each darkroom and lighting in all rooms – perfect.

Meanwhile, I carried on with the plaster boarding, until it ran out.  I moved the big sink from my home darkroom and built a frame for it –then the worst job of the week, bagging up the rubble.  Been a long week, but got so much done.  Think I’ve deserved a rest in Wales.

Electrickery is nigh

First off here are three photos of how I left it last night.  Now the walls are up it is getting quite hard to shoot in such small spaces.  Today I finished plaster boarding the interiors of the two darkrooms.  Just a bit more to put on the ceiling of the wet room then fill and seal all the joints.

Andy came today to start fitting all of the electrics.  He worked no stop all day ad has fitted five boxes for double sockets down each side of the studio along with the conduit and fed the cables through and has run the cables for the sockets in both darkrooms.  It was the right me to get someone in who knows what they are doing - I don't know how he manages to keep track of the amount of cables that are running through the walls.  He has wired for four rings so if I manage to overload one I wont loose everything.

I started to dismantle my home darkroom tonight, quite sad really, it has served me well.

Sooooo Tired

Been a long day, I've put in 14 hours into the darkroom.  Bought another 10 sheets of plasterboard and another 20 lengths of timber, all of which had to be carried up two floors.  But I got the most important piece of equipment today, a kettle!

It was the turn of the wet darkroom today.  there was the remains of a structure jutting out from the wall. so the first job was to box that in, after removing and stabilising the loose plaster on the walls.

This was followed by removing the sink, plaster boarding the wall then refitting the sink.While I was doing this the lady from the studio below me came up for a chat, she saw the sink and looked a bit worried, she explained that she had a lot of rolls of silk stored directly under me so was hoping I wasn't going to have a flood,  She is a textile designed and makes couture silk dresses.  I had just started to build the stud wall when Eve came for a visit - it is a very friendly mill.  She took me up to see her studio on the floor above.  She has been in it for two years bit only started shooting commercially in March.  Her studio is on the end of the building so has windows down two sides.  It is about 5 feet longer than mine as she doesn't have the corridor.  It is an incredible space.  She has stripped the plaster from three of the walls and re-plastered the fourth.  She has removed the ceiling exposing a brick, vaulted structure.  The floor is the original huge oak boards that supported the weaving machines which she has stripped and varnished.  The best bit though is she has the fire escape - it was great sitting in the sun chatting overlooking the river.

I think I needed the rest because when I got back I had to start plaster boarding the ceiling in the darkroom.  Not the easiest job in the world to do on your own!  I made a couple of supports and eventually got it done.  The rest of the day went pretty well, both darkrooms now have all their walls and most of the internal plater boarding is done so it is ready for Andy to start the electickery tomorrow.  Only problem was I was so tired that I forgot to photograph the darkrooms!

With working late I discovered the night time inhabitants, that slightly embarrassing breed  - middle aged men dressing like teenagers and rehearsing with bands!

The Darkside is Approaching.

This morning started well enough, a trip to the hardware for materials, the rest of the morning was a bit more strenuous.  I'm just glad the studio is on the 2nd floor, not the fourth which the other unit I considered was.  There are a lot of stairs to carry 10 sheets of plasterboard, 20 lengths of timber, a bag of plaster plus all associated screws, buckets and tools.  I earned lunch in the cafe!

Revived by fried food in bread I started scrapping loose plaster off the walls, good job I bought a large pack of dust masks!  Walls cleared and stabilised I 'dotted and dabbed' plasterboard onto two of the walls in what will be the dry darkroom.

Next came the fun bit, fastening plasterboard onto the ceiling.  With the aid of two lengths of wood and my step ladders I eventually managed to cover the ceiling in this part of the darkroom.  The ceiling is clad in nice old timber, which I intend to clean up in the studio part, but in the darkrooms I have decided that it is better to cover it to cut down on dust.  

I then set about building the frame for the fourth wall which I had almost finished before I had to finish for the day.  So tomorrow - back to B&Q for more plaster board and by the end of the day I will hopefully have this room finished. Well that's the plan.

The earth moved - well the walls did!

Picked up the keys for the unit this morning and met the maintenance man who replaced the three broken pains of glass.  He also removed some rubble that the previous tenant had left - so there I was on my new home, so to speak.

Andy, one of my ex students who just happens to be an electrician, was good enough to come and have a look at the place and is going to work out what I need in terms of wiring, sockets and lighting.

After a quick trip to the hardware and some junk food for lunch time to start work.  The existing stud wall does not give as much space as I need for the two darkrooms so I decided to dismantle it and move it three feet into the main room.  Not a difficult job, but a lengthy one when you are working on your own.

The views from my windows.  The studio over looks the River Thame and ,above the rive, the Huddersfield Canal.  I had a visit from a couple of my neighbours, Eve and Fiona, who told me that there is a mink loving opposite the mill.  Fiona is an artist and Eve is another photographer who has a corner studio, with five windows.  she was saying that she is planning on setting up a darkroom but was struggling because of the windows and getting water to her studio.  It looks like she will be taking me up on the offer of the use of my darkroom when it is 

finished.

Just before I gave up for the nigh due to failing light - the bulb blew in the only flood light I had taken down, I had a visit from another neighbour.  A guy called Baz who is a portrait and wedding photographer with a studio two floors above me.  It would seem that thee is quite a friendly little community in the mill.

The Dream

The Engine Room will be a place where photographers can come and have access to equipment and facilities that will support their development in analogue photography.  Initially it will be a small affair with a few photographers hopefully feeling comfortable enough to work there and making donations to cover the running costs.  I do not intend to run workshops for the next few years. 

The darkroom will be equipped with Chromega and De-vere enlargers up to 5x7 (10x8 if I can negotiate with a place I know that has an unused one).  I already have six enlargers to equip it.  The wet side will include Jobo and Wilkinson processors for C41, E6 and RA4 plus of course black and white.  I will also have equipment for historical processes from wet collodion through to cyanotype.

The studio will be equipped with large format equipment from 5x4 through to 10x12 with limited flash and constant source.  The studio will be primarily aimed at historical processes. 

The gallery.  When not in use the studio will also be a gallery giving emerging photographers a opportunity to exhibit.  To aid them I have been building up a stock of frames, but we recently discovered quite a few have suffered water damage!

There will also be a mounting area and I will be moving all of my books there.

I have spent the past few years building up a stock of equipment to make this dream happen – I just needed the push from a couple of good friends.

The Background

I am lucky enough to have two good friends who are not afraid to tell me what they think I should be doing.  Both have given me similar advice over the last couple of months.  The press and documentary photographer Sandra Lorkowska  has encouraged me to dream and to work towards achieving my dreams, she thinks from the heart.  Mina Ahmed is a emerging fine art photographer who gives sensible, grown up advice, but her passion and work ethic have given me the drive to proceed.

I was taught by Paul Hill, amongst others, in the late 70s and early 80s.  He not only passed on a passion for image making, but an attitude towards teaching, which I hope I have been able to continue in my 27 years of teaching photography.  One of the things that impressed me the most about Paul was The Photographer’s Place.  Based in his cottage in Derbyshire this was a location where photographers could meet, work, learn and discuss photography.  It has always been my dream to be able to start a place like this.

The Reasoning

I worked on a campus in the north of Manchester, which had superb photography facilities, including a 15 enlarger darkroom with a central sink.  Ex students and independent practitioners used to come back year after year to use the facilities.  When I was eventually moved off this campus I managed to reopen a darkroom, with the help of a letter written for me by Franz Peter Verheyan.  Again this was used by a wide variety of people, but as the campus was aimed at 16-19 year olds it was decided that my schemes were inappropriate and I was moved to a very nice campus in South Manchester, but no darkroom.

There seems to be no chance of ever getting a darkroom at the campus and the syllabus now is totally digital so I no longer see my future being in Further Education.  Luckily I am now 53, so early retirement will be possible in a few years.  It is still my passionate belief that to understand photography you have to understand the full process, you have to understand exposure and the effects of controlling tones through this process.  You need to master the craft.

The Plan

I visited a local mill last week with Mina along to keep my feet on the ground.  As a result I have now signed a 12 month lease (well actually 14 for the price of 12) on a space  The studio as they optimistically call it, is the top part of the old engine room from when cotton was produced in the mill.  There was not really much of a choice of units, as only one had water, luckily it seems to meet my needs.  Part of it is already partitioned wit a stud wall, but I think I may need to move it to fit a darkroom in, there is just 1 double socket, but a new power supply that more than meets my requirement, and no light fittings.  The walls need plastering, the ceiling repairing and the floor sanding – so enough to keep me busy.