save film photography

I still run a color darkroom at my home but when I need large prints or the use of the automated equipment, I come to Evergreen. Please keep this resource in the community.

There's no question that there will always be subtleties (and not-so-subtleties) in analog film that will never be matched in the digital age. Don't cut expression off at the knees. It's needed now more than ever.

7 years ago Featured

I taught color photography at Photographic Center Northwest. I and several colleagues enjoy printing at your lab, which is an excellent one. It offers a different photographic experience than that provided by a computer and fosters community, since many students and photographers are printing together at the same time.

I learned darkroom procedures in the 8th Grade at London Elementary School out of Cottage Grove, Oregon in 1960. Don't take this gem away.

I love this darkroom, and it is the last of its kind. Please, keep it running. I guarantee you it will be worth it. Thanks.

I'm a long time user of the facilities and broken-hearted to not have the ability to continue my practice here.

The color darkroom is a jewel for West Coast photography. There simply is no other student and community facilities like it West of LA. By all means, increase the price to community printers to help manage costs. Once the color darkroom closes, it will likely never re-open. It would be easier to keep it open and figure out how to make it sustainable cost wise for the future while still in operation. Once printers move on, it will be very hard to get them back if the facility re-opens. Please reconsider the current plan to close after summer quarter. Thank you.

We gotta keep this darkroom alive! Power to the People!

This is an important resource to preserve. This type of availability is what Evergreen is all about.

I graduated from Evergreen and spent much of my time there working in this darkroom. I interned at Photoland and maintained the color darkroom and processor, among other things. In my time there I recognized what an amazing resource it was, and saw many members of the community who valued it. Now more than ever we need art and greater community engagement. Reducing these kinds of services is a truly foolish decision that will only further spearate Evergreen from the values it was founded upon.

Keep it going. No where else for us to print color work on the west coast close enough to make it feasible.

Analog photography is not replaceable once lost, nor is it obsolete to those who value the craft and the final print image that is a different animal from digital as long as processing materials are available. Their value is evident by the continued commercial investment in continuing to make film, papers, and chemistry available to the art world.

Save color film!!

If the color darkroom at Photoland closes the only color darkroom left on the West Coast will be in LA and it’s really expensive. Truly truly sad. Printing has been a part of my life for many years, at one time a weekly affair. It’s a shame to see Evergreen give up when they have a very knowledgeable and willing processor operator in Andrew Gregory.

As a Portland resident deprived of color printing facilities here since Udevelop closed in 2014, I have been coming to print at Evergreen since early 2015. With several other friends, I use the color darkroom facilities at least once a month. Evergreen is the last analog color printing facility in the Northwest. It’s such a shame that this artisanal craft will disappear.

Please keep the lab open. It provides students and other members of the community with the sort of unique opportunity Evergreen prides itself in. If you go ahead with the decision you are no doubt bound to regret it when this sort of photography comes back. I join my other alumni in asking you too keep it open.

Please keep the lab open!

Evergreen has a rare gem with this analog color darkroom, one of a few left in the country. In a world of digital inkjet prints, handmade chromogenic prints have a unique resonance. Beyond that, the darkroom has become a nexus for Evergreen art students and the community at large. And from a practical standpoint, dismantling the color darkroom would likely be more of a hassle than letting it stay in its current state, where it operates efficiently in a space designed specifically for color printing. (The giant processor, for one, almost certainly wouldn't find another home.) I hope Evergreen lets the darkroom remain active; it's a very appreciated space.

Evergreen alumni, graduated 2004

Please find a creative way to fund the color darkroom without shutting it down. The lab is vital to those artists who are students and graduates who continue to inspire with their analog color work.