This article is an attempt to capture the specificity of the photographic darkroom, understood not only as a place of chemical and technical operations, but also as a space of specific aesthetic, philosophical and existential experience, a space to create new meanings, to construct metaphors and analogies. In considerations outlining some ways of thinking about the photographic darkroom as an area of significance, the range of proposed questions touches four areas: selected approaches towards theory of photography (reflection on the status of the photographic image and its relation to the world being photographed), associations and analogies between photography and existence (the relationship of photography and memory), the search for photographicness as the essence of photography and – using the recognition of the three above reflections – reading the darkroom experience in literary approach (as based on the novel “The Box” <“Die Box”> by Günter Grass).
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.