Chemistry junior Zachary Chroust uses darkroom techniques to produce photographs. Photo by Amina Hussain | Mercury Staff.
A large white rectangular
block stands in the middle of a large white room in the SP/N Gallery at Synergy
Park North 2. One side is adorned by detailed cutout black and white pictures
of mushrooms, and the other side covered with small framed black and white
photos of smiling people covered with paint splatters and brush strokes.
On the walls surrounding
this block are framed photos of burnt negatives and photos splattered with
paint — the work of UTD alumna Kaitlyn Killian and chemistry junior Zachary
Chroust as part of the “Experimental Methods” exhibit on display until April
26.
Chroust said he’s had a
passion for dark room photography since high school, where he was introduced to
it in a photography course he took for his fine arts requirement. After seven
years of experience in the field, he felt prepared to be able to pull off his
own show.
“I fell in love with it
because it really truly is a fine art, and it’s amazing to be able to
synthesize your own photograph in a way that’s unique to you and no one else
can copy,” Chroust said. “Ever since then, it’s become more of a hobby and a
passion for me. I absolutely love developing film and going to the dark room.”
Killian
could not be reached for comment prior to publication.
Dark
room photography consists of soaking negatives, or color inverted photos, in a
diluted chemical solution and shining light on them to turn them into
positives, where the colors are correctly reproduced to appear like what was
captured. The process takes place in a room completely devoid of light to allow
controlled projection of light and development of the photos.
People
often don’t know enough about the level of precision and focus that goes into
developing photos in the dark room, Chroust said.
A panel of photographed mushrooms bridges two walls of art as part of the “Experimental Methods” exhibit at the SP/N Gallery. Photo by Amina Hussain | Mercury Staff.
“They
think you can just run a piece of paper into a solution, but it’s more than
that because you have so many things to control, and there’s a lot of places
you can go wrong and putting the wrong chemistry into the development,” he
said. “They don’t understand how much chemistry goes into it and how much money
goes into it because it’s really expensive to keep this passion.”
Chroust
worked on the pieces featured in the gallery as part of his final project last
year and his independent study this year in photography professor Diane
Durant’s class. He normally did traditional dark room photography, which
involves developing black and white photos.
The
photos taken and modified in the exhibit were made using non-traditional
methods such as melting and burning the negatives, Brian Scott, the technical
facilities manager for the School of Arts and Humanities, said.
“You could achieve all of
this on a computer, too, which is also experimental photography, but I don’t
think that’s the nature of Dr. Duran’s class,” Scott said. “We’re working in
the dark room with these traditional materials, and we want to use the tools in
the ways that aren’t conventional.”
Durant
pushed Chroust and Killian to create their photography outside of conventional
methods, which Chroust said he was used to.
“It
makes me feel accomplished that it’s something so critical and difficult to
accomplish,” Chroust said. “There’s so many parameters to each photograph and
so many parameters to each negative you have to perfect.”
Setting
up the show in the SP/N Gallery was a challenge itself, Chroust said. It was
difficult at first to set up the space to accommodate the four series of works
— two of which were his and two of which were Killian’s — and conform to a
common theme.
“It was
really hard for me and her to be able to move the walls around and be able to
know what order it goes in,” he said.
Chroust
said he hopes people walk away from the gallery with a greater understanding of
dark room photography. As a pre-medical student, he couldn’t see himself being
given the opportunity to feature the work he was passionate about in a gallery.
“I
would really want people to understand the medium better and to see that
there’s so many things that you can apply it to even if it’s not such a popular
form of art to this day,” he said.