Isamu Noguchi, 1955
Jean Cocteau, 1955
Further Reading
Dahl-Wolfe, Louise.Louise Dahl-Wolfe: A Photographer’s
Scrapbook. New York: St. Martin’s/Marek, 1984.
Edmonson, William.The Art of William Edmondson. Fore-
ward by Robert Farris Thompson. Jackson, MS: Uni-
versity of Mississippi Press and Cheekwood Museum of
Art, 1999.
Euclaire, Sally.Louise Dahl-Wolfe: A Retrospective Exhibi-
tion. Washington, DC: National Museum of Women in
the Arts, 1987.
The Fashion Photography of Louise Dahl-Wolfe. Nashville:
Cheekwood Fine Arts Center, 1980.
Fonssagrives, Lisa.Three Decades of Fashion Photography.
London: Thames + Hudson, 1996.
Goldberg, Vicki, and Nan Richardson.Louise Dahl-Wolfe:
The American Image. New York: Harry N. Abrams,
2000.
Hall-Duncan, Nancy.The History of Fashion Photography.
New York: International Museum of Photography and
Alpine Book Co., 1979.
Mann, Margery, and Ann Noggle.Women of Photography:
An Historical Survey. San Francisco: San Francisco
Museum of Art, 1975.
Mitchell, Margaretta K. Recollections: Ten Women of
Photography. New York: Viking, 1979.
Rosenblum, Naomi.A History of Women Photographers.
New York: Abbeville Press, 1994.
Steele, Valerie.Fifty Years of Fashion: New Look to Now.
Hew Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997.
Trahey, Jane, ed.Harper’s Bazaar: One Hundred Years of
the American Female. New York: Random House, 1967.DARKROOM
Film photography’s science is about the interplay of
light, emulsion, and chemicals working in unison,
with the aid of the human hand and eye, to create a
masterful print ready for framing and mounting. To
understand the history of photography it is also
important to grasp the craft and science behind
creating a photography print from negative film.
Yet at the end of the twentieth century, many were
bidding farewell to photography’s traditional dark-
room techniques, welcoming the world of digital
photography and its computerized darkroom.
The darkroom is the setting for two processes:
developing film and printing and developing photo-
graphs. The pleasure that can be experienced in
producing—from start to finish—a perfect negative
and a perfect photographic print is one that has
driven photographers since the medium’s inception.
Some photographers, like Ansel Adams, earned a
reputation as being obsessive about creating the
perfect photographic print and preached technical
perfection as the highest form of photographic
artistry, creating systems (the zone system) and a
school (Group f/64) dedicated to the pursuit of
photographic perfection.
There are of course opportunities for myriad frus-
trations in the darkroom as well and a wide range of
practices that reflect photographer’s relationships to
the darkroom can be noted. Many professional pho-
tographers specialize in shooting film only, send to
commercial laboratories for development, and super-
vise the printing of their photographs by the same
labs or by an assistant. Some gladly give over the
developing of film to commercial labs, yet create their
own prints in the darkroom.
Even if one is never going to use a darkroom, in
order to understand and appreciate all facets of
photography, it is helpful to understand basic dark-
room equipment and how this equipment is utilized.
If one is a photographer, it is essential knowledge.
Setting up a darkroom comes with no short supply
of equipment or expense. Film processing and print
processing require specialized equipment and
spaces. Chemical mixing, film processing, the crea-
tion of proof sheets, the enlarging process, and print
processing, fixing, drying, and finally, mounting are
the steps required to turn the exposed film into a
finished photograph.Film Processing
A pitch-black closet or space is needed to process
film. This space cannot be penetrated by even the
smallest amount of light or undeveloped film will be
ruined. Even a safelight suitable for print proces-DAHL-WOLFE, LOUISE