The Oldest Darkoom

From a recent list-serv posting about the newly-discovered "oldest darkroom" in the world:

"The darkroom was owned by Joseph Fortuné Petiot-Groffier who died in 1855. The lab was left untouched by children, grand-children,... after his death until today when a great-great... decided to open the doors to the director of la Maison Nicéphore Niepce in Chalon-sur-Saone in France. The lab was full of ancient chemicals (many still in sealed containers), photo equipment, and over 400 books dating prior to 1830 covering the full knowledge on photography as of that time. It will be recreated at the Maison Nicéphore Niepce." - (translated?) by Guy Glorieux

From my dad's email reply:

"Pierre-Yves Mahe, is the founder of SPEOS photographic school in Paris, and he rents the part of the house where Niépce had his laboratory-workshop in Saint-Loup de Varennes, on the Gras estate. Pierre-Yves was the first photographer to occupy the place since the inventor’s death...The historical residence had remained unexplored until then, just gazed at from outside by some curious people. Pierre-Yves, along with Dr. Zakia and I, wrote the book, The Stop System which was published in French and in English in 1999. The Stop System is still being taught at Speos.

Pierre-Yves visits Rochester from time to time and was here recently when he showed me numerous pictures of the Petiot-Groffier darkroom. It was amazing to hear his recounting of the story of being the first person to enter this historic darkroom in approximately 150 years! The lab was frozen in time as if it were a time capsule, which, undoubtedly, it was. Pierre-Yves showed many pictures of the investigation of the lab with full-time chemists in masks checking over the curious, centuries-old bottles to make sure that they were not dangerous (some were!) and arranging and cataloging them. Eventually, the darkroom will become part of the Niépce house for all to see! What a great find to discover the darkroom, chemicals, cameras, books, and processing apparatus that were exactly contemporaneous with Niépce, many of which were used in his investigations!"

Here are some more articles on this discovery: one in French and one in English.

From the Archive

My father worked for Kodak in various departments for over 33 years. That was his arena, thus I painted and drew and eventually grew up to be an art/photohistorian, but it was inevitable that I got into the business in some way. He often shares some amazing stories from his days at the yellow giant and all the people he worked with and met, and if it's ok with him I will share some from time to time here. In addition, I fear that these oral stories from the golden days of the photo industry giants are being lost, and especially those from the people who were behind the scenes and in the technical trenches. (I heard similar stories from Polaroid employees, in particular the self-proclaimed "the goo people," when doing a Polaroid exhibition.) Growing up in Kodak town was and still is a huge part of my life. While in Oxford one summer in college, for example, we met a British professor who asked us if we really could throw our film into the Genesee river to develop it.

Here is a fun picture of my Dad in his darkroom, circa 1968. I remember him saying this was a special enlarger head, one that hadn't been released. I will check again with him on the identity various accouterments and post the details later. Long live the darkroom (or at least film!).

Addendum: 1/6 I just found this old IM exchange that I saved

Leslie: what kind of enlarger is that??

Leslie: i am doing a powerpoint presentation, thus my flurry of images

Gordon: That was an experimental Kodak enlarger with an attached color computer that would set the right color filtration automatically.

Leslie: in 1968???

Gordon: It was based upon the old Kodak Precision B enlarger, but was highly modified. It never went into production but I got it working