Lights to Go Out on Darkroom

When the Columbia campus shuts down for the holiday season this coming December, so will the last darkroom open to the entire undergraduate student body.

The Grace Gold Darkroom, located in the lower level of McIntosh Student Center at Barnard, has long been available to Barnard and Columbia undergraduates for a fee of $90 per semester, as well as to any faculty or staff enrolled in the photography mini-course offered by Barnard's College Activities Office.

But construction on the Nexus, a larger student center that will replace McIntosh, is scheduled to begin in June 2007, forcing the darkroom's closure by the end of the fall semester. Plans for the new building, however, do not include a darkroom.

"Part of the decision has to do with a lack of recent usage," said CAO associate director Julien Marques.

The demand for darkrooms-and film in general-has been on a slow decline. A darkroom previously located on the fifth floor of Lerner Hall was recently closed by the Office of Student Development and Activities. According to darkroom adviser Lauri Straney, plans to redesign the space are already underway, but the new facility will be geared primarily toward digital work.

Straney said that the Lerner facility will be refitted to act as a publication room, accommodating the various student newspapers, magazines, and journals recognized by the Activities Board at Columbia.

"Within the last 18 months, everyone's gotten cameras on their phones, so darkrooms are closing everywhere, quite frankly," Straney said. "It's an interesting time. Digital photography has become the standard. This [new facility] will better serve writers."

Though Straney emphasized that the University has not solidified official policy on who will be allowed access to the facility, she said that its use may be limited to publication staffers.

For students involved in Columbia's already small undergraduate photography department, dwindling resources are a cause for concern.

"I think we definitely need more darkroom space and more space for the photography department in general," said Jason Patinkin, CC '09. "It is a very popular art form on campus, and I know for a fact that a lot of people want to get involved. If those spaces in Lerner and Barnard could be opened up, I think everyone could be accommodated."

The last remaining professional darkroom on campus is located in Dodge Hall and is open only to students enrolled in a photography course or working to maintain and monitor the facility.