Less than a mile's walk from the Harvey Milk Arts Center in San Francisco, a complex dedicated to visual art, theater, dance, and music, you will find 575 Castro Street, the former home of Castro Camera. Harvey Milk and his partner Scott Smith opened Castro Camera in 1973, where they not only provided cameras and film to the neighborhood, but also created a central social hub for the growing gay community. Castro Camera became the de facto headquarters for Milk's social and political activism and in 1977 Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, making him the first openly gay man to win an election for public office in the U.S. Less than a year later Milk would be assassinated, along with Mayor George Moscone, by a fellow member of the Board of Supervisors. In 1979 the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department rededicated their arts facility at the edge of Duboce Park in Milk's memory. The exterior of the building is now emblazoned with Milk's words, “The American Dream starts with the neighborhoods…;” an exemplar of his belief that it is through the cultivation of community and the personal connections between people that we can fundamentally enhance our societal quality of life. 

The Harvey Milk Photo Center, which is part of the greater HMAC complex, carries on Milk's legacy in creating an inclusive space for people to express themselves through photography and become part of a supportive, welcoming community. I spoke to Dave Christensen, who will soon be retiring after eleven years as the Director of the center, and he is passionate about maintaining that aspect of the center through and beyond the pandemic shutdowns. “It's a photography center for classes and lectures, but it's also the heart of the community. That whole feeling of sharing, building, and creating and being a part of a community is so central to our being. I taught at the center before I became the director and I was always so impressed with the camaraderie, it's wonderful to have a safe and thriving place to create whatever you want and have this community to share with. I'm sure that's hitting people right below the belt, that's a missing element.” 

The HMPC is one of the oldest and largest public darkrooms in the United States. Originally opened in 1940, during WWII it was a place where servicemen and women could visit while they were on leave to develop film, print their photographs, and also connect with each other. The photo center moved to its current location in 1953 and was part of an extensive $12 million seismic retrofit and renovation of the arts complex in the 2000s. The darkroom facility is on an impressively massive scale, accommodating up to 45 people, complemented by a digital lab and extensive gallery space, and will soon to be joined by a library of photographic publications. But, of course, these facilities have been closed for over a year now, locked in limbo by the Covid crisis. Instructor Susanna Lamaina likens the space to a time capsule, describing how they only had 24 hours of warning before the doors were shut for an indefinite closure. With the physical space out of bounds, there was no choice but to go virtual.

Christensen describes that moment of unexpected transition: “We were going full steam. We actually had a gallery opening the night before we closed, and the next day we locked the doors down. We went virtual at that moment in time, we took all of the images from that show and quickly hustled to create a virtual world. Right on the heels of that show, we were getting into the Golden Gate Bridge anniversary, which was going to be a huge, spectacular event with over 100 photographers exhibiting at our photo center and at McLaren Lodge, which is the Rec and Parks headquarters. I knew we weren't going to come back for a while so we had to immediately turn this ship on a dime and put it on the website.”

On top of a packed exhibition schedule, the staff also had to quickly transition whatever classes they could to an online format, which obviously couldn't include darkroom, alternative processes, and other hands-on offerings that had to be postponed indefinitely. Christensen says, “It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I've worked very hard to make sure we hire the right passionate people who are really committed, who are not only educated but are also talented working photographers themselves. It was so hard for me to have to unplug that. In the meantime, we decided to plunge forward with our virtual classes. I was at the point where I was like, 'Ok, the gloves are off, let's go!'” Some of the online classes they have offered are fundamental tutorials on subjects like digital photography and Adobe Lightroom, while others deal with more imaginative concepts, such as developing your personal vision and creative portraiture. But the true heart of the center, and the passion of many of the staff and volunteers, lie in the realm of analog.

Instructor Susanna Lamina has been a photographer for over 40 years and is fully committed to the analog world in her personal work and in passing the excitement of darkroom practices on to her students. “I am totally based in analog. In all the classes that I teach, I have strict analog students and I have digital-based students, so with them, I help them make digital negatives and I get them into the darkroom and teach them how to print and go through the darkroom processes. One of the things that I really, really love about that is many of the digital students have never been in a darkroom before and when they get in there they love it. If I have 12 students in a class I'll usually get three or four asking where they can purchase an analog camera. For me, that's really wonderful and fantastic.”

In talking to so many analog photographers over the years I've heard the same story over again, and it's true for myself as well, that moment we unveil the first roll of film we've developed or watched an image come up in the print developer, we were hooked. That magic of the darkroom is something special and captivating and unbelievably exciting, and it's why places like the Harvey Milk Photo Center are important in their promotion and preservation of traditional darkroom practices, particularly for young people who will become the newest torch bearers for analog practices.

Lamina tells me a story about a young boy who lives near the center who she saw peeking through the door one day: “When he first started to come and see us he was probably 10 ½, he's now 13. He stood at the door and put one foot in and one foot out and I went over to him and asked him if he wanted to come in. I gave him a tour and took him into the darkroom and he was just blown away. I encouraged him to come every Saturday and I'd work with him in the darkroom. Long story short, I had now become his mentor. I've taught him how to mix chemistry, and he comes and volunteers and cleans up in the film developing room. Folks like that are really incredible.”   

Christensen agrees about the mysterious power of the darkroom. He says, “Even the younger generation who has never touched film, when they touch film and experiment with it they're hooked. So there's this surge of new generations coming in to find out what this beautiful process is about,  what film is and what it does, and the alternative processes. It's a world away from cell phone, iPhone, digital. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with that, but as far as this very organic process of taking the photograph, processing your film, editing your film on the light table, and then hand carrying that into the darkroom and putting it in the film carrier and exposing it, the magic still happens. Putting it into the tray and agitating that tray and seeing an image come up is still mind blowing for me, it just stops time. It's something that makes everyone who comes out of the darkroom say, 'Oh my god, I want to get a membership, I want to stay here, this is an amazing thing.' I think we're so removed from that process of making the photograph, now we just shut our eyes and hit the button, there's no slowing down the train to really appreciate that visual beauty that's in front of you.”

As San Francisco nears an 80% Covid vaccination rate, things are looking good for a fall reopening of the darkroom facilities and a return of in-person classes, workshops, and exhibitions. In the meantime, the center is continuing with its online programming and class offerings for the near future. When the center can reopen, they will once again be offering darkroom access for youth, adults, and seniors, with scholarships for low-income residents. As the center's budget has been drastically reduced due to the pandemic, the nonprofit Friends of Harvey Milk Photo Center are accepting tax-deductible donations to assist in the rehiring of staff, purchasing of supplies, and expansion of their programs, a link to donate can be found on the center's website.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Niniane Kelley is a fine art photographer living and working in San Francisco and Lake County, California. A native of the Bay Area, she is a San Jose State University graduate, earning a BFA in Photography in 2008.

Drawn to photography for both the immediacy of the image making process and the intrinsic alchemy of the darkroom ritual, she crafts the majority of her imagery using traditional 19th century processes which give each piece its own unique character.

She teaches workshops in the Bay Area and surrounding environs. She most recently worked as a photographer and manager at San Francisco’s tintype portrait studio, Photobooth.

Connect with Niniane Kelley on her Website and on Instagram!

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