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Shooting on film and manually developing prints in a chemical solution may rapidly be losing its commercial viability. But working in the darkroom, Guilford College photography instructor Maia Dery says, is in no danger of becoming a lost art.

"It's like etching or printmaking - it's always going to be around," she said. "Darkroom photography is a craft, something that emerges from a set of skills that's greater than the sum of its parts. There may be fewer companies making fewer products for the darkroom, but the art is always going to be there."

As digital cameras became standard during the past decade, many photographers put away their enlargers, negative sleeves and developing tanks for good. But a small number of fine art photographers still cling to the techniques that were taught a generation ago. And though winding a roll of film o nto a wire spool may no longer be a requisite skill, many young photographers still enjoy the alchemy.

"There's still some hard-core enthusiasts who'll lock themselves in the dark room for weekends at a time," UNCG photography instructor Sarah Martin said . "There are a lot of students whose parents may have taken a photography course or had a darkroom. And they want to do it themselves while they still can."

'Like a mystery'

The darkroom inside UNCG's Gatewood Studio Arts Center contains about a dozen enlargers, which are used for projecting negative images unto a piece of photo paper to make a print. At some point, Martin said, the darkroom will probably be scaled back to make room for another digital lab.

Beginning in the fall, students taking introductory photography classes will be divided into two groups: those who want to focus on digital photography and those who want to pursue traditional darkroom work. For now students can learn both disciplines in the same class, though they are given the choice of whether they want to focus on one or the other. Martin said during the past year, about 60 percent of her students chose digital and the other 40 percent the darkroom.

Though anyone thinking of becoming a professional photographer will likely be working primarily with digital, Martin said she thinks it's still a good idea for all aspiring photographers to cut their teeth under the red lights.

"There's a different level of engagement. It forces you to slow down and look at everything," she said.

"I think one of the pitfalls with digital is that people work so fast that they don't take the time to compose or really look at things as closely as they should, especially if they can crop and do whatever they want in Photoshop later. And I also think a lot of students respond to that hands-on process.

"Something gets lost in translation when you're sitting under some fluorescent lights with a computer and mouse."

In the darkroom, students in fellow UNCG professor Leah Sobsey's class said there's a bit of a thrill in watching their images appear in the chemical solution.

"It's kind of like a mystery," said 20-year-old senior Heidi McAllister , who was developing some prints of a picnic table at Deep River in Randleman. "Unlike with digital, you don't see what you get until you process the film, and you don't really get a good look at it until you enlarge it. You learn patience, and you learn to appreciate it more."

A serendipitous process

The shift toward digital has been somewhat of a blessing for darkroom traditionalists.

"Since everybody's switching to digital, you can get some really good deals on equipment," said 47-year-old Reidsville photographer Randy Billingsley . "There's a lot packed up in garages and attics right now."

But it has also made it harder to get chemicals and paper. Several companies, including Kodak, have dropped out of the black and white photo paper business altogether. Stacy Bowden, manager at Ritz Camera in Greensboro, said his store has only "a couple of things on clearance, but not much."

But business is steady for those who continue to sell darkroom supplies.

"It (darkroom photography) is still taught in many schools and colleges as sort of a grounding to get students into the craft," said Rod Parsons, vice president of technical operations at Harman Technologies, maker of Ilford brand paper.

"We're not selling in the same quantities as we were 10 years ago, of course, but it has plateaued off, and because certain companies went bankrupt or no longer sell supplies, we've been doing very well. And we're a relatively small company compared to the Kodaks and Fujis of the world, so we don't need huge volume to make our products viable."

Until just a few years ago many photographers preferred the quality of darkroom prints, said Pam Crist , founder of Dalmatian Black and White Custom Lab in Greensboro. But improved technology has rendered the difference in quality negligible between digital and all but the largest film formats.

Though Dalmatian makes digital prints, it also remains one of the few commercial labs to still specialize in traditional darkroom printing (which makes up about 25 percent of its business) for a national client base.

Crist recommends that anyone with a newborn baby shoot at least one role of black and white film. For one thing, black and white pictures have proved to retain their luster for more than a century. Prints dating from the earliest days of photography in the 1830s are still in existence. And they will never go obsolete.

"There are some gold CDs out there that will supposedly last 300 years," she said. "But what good will that be if you don't have anything to play them on in 300 years?"

She said she enjoys working on a computer because she can blow up an image and fix minor flaws that would be difficult to deal with by hand. But she's still enamored of what she calls the serendipity of the darkroom.

"When you're working with a digital image, you can make 50 prints exactly alike," she said.

"But in the darkroom where you're using your hands - well, you can't do your hands exactly the same way twice. You're not always going to be able to mix the chemicals the same. You go around the country, you have different kinds of water. Being in the darkroom, you're working on taking an imperfect process to make a perfect print."

Contact Robert C. Lopez at 691-5091 or robert.lopez@news-record.com