Community darkroom in Appleton brings the artwork of movie images to a brand new era

For Char Brandis, a hobbyist photographer in Appleton, the darkroom is her pleased place. 

But being exterior of the skilled images business, Brandis typically discovered herself engaged on tasks alone, with out the help of an inventive neighborhood.

“I was doing a lot of art just on my own, in my basement,” Brandis informed WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”

Then, she began volunteering with Photo Opp, a nonprofit group based in 2021 that opened up a visible workspace in downtown Appleton two years later. 

“Coming into Photo Opp and meeting all of these new friends and people that share that passion has been a game changer,” mentioned Brandis, who now serves on the group’s board and helps to run occasions. 

Photo Opp is the brainchild of Graham Washatka, John Adams and Mark Ferrell, three native multimedia professionals who wished to create a spot for visible artists within the Fox Cities to come back collectively.

After years spent renovating a century-old former synagogue, Photo Opp opened its brick-and-mortar residence base to the general public in late 2024. There is a gallery and occasion house on the higher ground, with small studios and a neighborhood darkroom on the decrease stage. 

“It was really important for me to be able to create a space that was beautiful and interesting and unique and inspiring,” co-founder John Adams informed WPR. “That way people — no matter if they like photography or not — would come in and feel welcome and be like, ‘I want to hang out here.’”

That neighborhood ethos runs by Photo Opp’s programming, which welcomes professionals, amateurs and whole newcomers to hone their craft aspect by aspect. Monthly film development nights, which launched final yr, have been particularly widespread. 

“Experience levels range anywhere from having never touched a camera before and interested in learning, all the way to professionals that have been in the industry for decades,” Brandis mentioned. “It’s really about putting those people next to each other to learn and develop techniques and experiment — and fail — with their art form.”

Developing neighborhood and connection, one movie roll at a time

For the founders of Photo Opp, it was necessary to construct the group from the bottom up in response to what the neighborhood was asking for.

One of these wants was for an area place to develop rolls of movie. In late 2023, Appleton’s final native picture store, Murray Photo and Video, permanently closed its doorways after greater than 30 years in enterprise. Now, the leaders of Photo Opp hope the nonprofit mannequin will help fill this hole.

“We were like, ‘Okay, we see a need. We want to keep this art form inside of our community. We should do something,’” Adams mentioned. “We decided to open up our film lab to be able to respond to that community need.”

At Photo Opp’s lab, neighborhood members can drop off rolls of film and get them developed, with costs beginning at $12 for growth solely and $20 to incorporate high-resolution digital information.

The service has already confirmed widespread, with Photo Opp fulfilling dozens of orders each week. Adams believes that’s partially as a result of individuals are returning to analog codecs like movie images as a break from the digital world. 

“I think we all want to disconnect right now a little bit from our phones, from our computers, and slow down and think about what we’re doing,” Adams mentioned.

This development is particularly pronounced within the younger generation. Photo Opp has been visiting colleges in surrounding cities like Green Bay and Neenah to host workshops with first graders by college-aged college students.

They additionally welcome courses to take area journeys to the Photo Opp workspace. The concept is to get younger individuals concerned in studying about images and videography past what they’ll shoot on their smartphone.

“We’re taking more pictures than we have ever before because of smartphones, but we spend so much less time with them,” Brandis mentioned. “But when you put a camera, whether it’s digital or film, in your hands, you’re really working with a photograph that you intentionally slowed down and took. And now you’re projecting it and then creating something tangible and genuine.”

“There’s just something about that first time in the darkroom when you slide your print into the developer and you watch your image come up,” she added. “That’s just magical.”

Photo Opp’s subsequent movie growth night time is on Feb. 8. See the total calendar of occasions on their website.