Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | books | about  Elegy for the dark room (22 Jun 2004) Traditional darkroom photography is a dying art. If you were to rattle off a long list of reasons why digital photography is superior, I wouldn't argue with you -- it is superior, for a long list of reasons. But today's photography students, hunched in front of their rows of computers, don't get to sing in harmony while manipulating their pictures. I don't imagine that applying the Burn-In Filter can effect the level of joy that I felt using my hands to shape the light that streamed onto photo paper. For that reason alone, paper-and-chemical photography will never really die. Not because some curmudgeon refuses to give up his Bessler enlarger and his Underwood typewriter, but because there is art in the process of creating art. In hand-burning an underexposed corner, in crooning sappy songs while you work, in gliding through the pale yellow light. There's no Photoshop filter for that. Article URL: http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2004/06/22/dark_room/ Read 51 more articles from Salon sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: An Introduction to Information Architecture This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy