I wanted to share some wonderful and exciting news with you, this summer the Photography facility went through a major renovation.  We closed down the darkroom facility for the duration of the summer term in order to give it a much needed and deserved facelift.  We opened the facility to students this September and they were greeted with new lighting, counter tops, chairs, epoxy coated and linoleum floors, fresh paint, a state of the art ventilation system, and many safety upgrades.  I believe that the photographs below will speak for themselves.

Our darkroom facility consists of the main darkroom which houses 15 individual printing rooms with each room containing one enlarger that can print 35mm, 120mm (medium format) and 4x5 (large format) black and white negatives.  There are two sinks to allow two sets of chemistry to be set up at once.  Outside of the main darkroom, you will find our archival wash and tank film developing area.  This space is used for archival processing of prints, film developing, and print drying.  

In addition to the main darkroom, we have two smaller darkrooms, the non-silver and sheetfilm rooms.  Both of these rooms were designed for their particular purpose and are used for non-silver processing (palladium, cyanotypes, tintypes, albumen, salt printing, and other non-silver processes),toning and for 4x5 and 8x10 film development.  

Steps away from the darkroom, we have an improved classroom and work space.  With new counter tops, stools and mobile whiteboard, we have created a learning environment as well as an area for our students to collaborate on printing and projects.  The renovation also allowed space to have the entire Photography Program faculty and staff in the facility instead of scattered all over Drexel's campus.   

The darkroom is an integral of our facility and goes hand in hand with our state of the art digital labs. Our digital labs house 44 20" Apple Intel iMac computers, 21 Epson V700 scanners, 14 Epson 3800 17" printers, 8 Epson 4800 17" printers, 2 Epson 7880 & 1 Epson 7800 24" printers, 1 Epson 9900 44" printer.  We also have a Student Support Lab that is home to an Imacon Virtual Drum Scanner and an Epson V750 Scanner for wet mounting 8x10 negatives.   

We upgrade technology every two to three years to keep up to date with the industry.  Adobe CS5, Lightroom, and other industry standard programs are installed on every computer so students are ahead of the curve for Co-Op and jobs upon graduation.  All digital labs have recently had a lighting upgrade to mimic the color temperature and levels of gallery situations.

Finally, our critique room is a place for students to review work under correct gallery lighting, meet with professors, and it is also used as a classroom.

I would personally like to invite you to stop by the facility for a tour.  Feel free to contact me to set one up.   

If you are a high school student or teacher, I wanted to let you know about about three great opportunities.  We are hosting two Open Houses, one on October 23 and the second on November 19.  The Open Houses are a great opportunity to learn about the program, meet or faculty, and see the facility in person.  The third opportunity is one that you will not want to miss.  We are hosting a free Workshop for high school Juniors and Seniors, this workshop will get you into our commercial photography studio and our advanced digital lab, as well as work along side our faculty for the day.  Space is limited, so I encourage to register today! 

Sincerely,

Paul Runyon, Sr.

Program Director  

Contact Us for a Tour

Register for an Open House

Register for the High School Workshop