THE SILVER MEDIUM OF IMAGE
FOTOHANE DARKROOM
As the camera becomes an inscription of sight, the stage of framing and those depicted requires a delineation of spirit, solidifying a reveal of intention from the latent image. This becomes the alchemy of the darkroom; a value-system of image creation where nothing is certain until the effect of appearance becomes visible. The rays of a cityscape oscillate in the moving hands of a child’s navigation, and the territory’s angular face is fragmented, perceptible in parts – a fragrant re-establishment of identity. Within a stone building of pronounced arches, just above a silver filigree workshop, Fotohane Darkroom in Mardin, Turkey, was built by Syrian photographer Serbest Salih and Turkish-born Amar Kılıç, providing the infrastructure for a communal darkroom and photographic workshop for the region’s local and displaced children. Sourcing 35mm point-and-shoot cameras and film stocks from manufacturers Ilford, Kodak, and Fujifilm, the Darkroom’s ethos encourages the creation of resonant meanings amongst the participants in their evocation of placeness and its outlines of receptivity.
Haydar (11) – “I wanted to document the daily life of my friend Miraç in our neighborhood before it is destroyed (by urban transformation)”
Representation forges a responsibility that Salih and Kılıç discern as explicit in their mission to mediate children’s surroundings, those recognizable and once peripheral. The effect of this mission provides overtures of experimentation, where instances such as rain damage from a forgotten nature-exposed camera, to the desire to cement a certain landscape against urban transformation, graft potentialities of vision.
Athens Design Forum presents a selection from the March workshop of Fotohane Darkroom, where places of transition (doorways, windows, the shaft of a tree) coincide with public spaces of engagement (courtyards, rooftops, narrow streets), carouseling in their variability a silver medium of reflectivity echoing the voice of the protagonists.
Ishak (8)
Asenat (14) – “It was the last frame of 36 rolls—I experimented with a double exposure”
Ishak (8) – “I live in the city but visit my village from time to time. In the village, I make many friends. I wanted to capture a portrait of my friend Agit and the others on the tree”
Said (11) – Double exposure, “Selfie and My Friends”
Agit (11) – “Landscape of My Village”
Cansu (10) – taken during a photowalk in the workshop
Havin (10) – capturing the world from her own perspective with a small camera
Cansu (9) – “I asked my friend to stand by the window, and his posture inspired me to capture this moment”
Asenat (14) and Enver (11) – “It was the last frame of 36 rolls—I experimented with a double exposure, and then my brother Enver tried a selfie”
Şirin (12) – “I love discovering little details; it inspires me to explore and learn new things in Mardin”
Cansu (10) – “Mardin has beautiful stone houses, and in the middle, there is a unique building. I felt connected to it, which is why I captured these photos during our workshop photowalk”
Yusuf Emre (11) – He was told by surrounding family and friends that black and white couldn’t hold a view because it lacked color. His imagination defines each image from new perspectives.
Gülseren (11) – “I forgot my camera outside by mistake. It stayed under the rain for a day, and the results were amazing”