An interest survey

A Community Darkroom Might Be Coming to ABQ. It Needs Your Help.

I’m Geo Evans, a photographer and teacher here in Albuquerque. I’m opening an hourly rental darkroom with two enlarger stations, and I want to build it around what this community actually needs. Tell me what you want.

What I already have

• Two enlargers, ready to print
• Developing trays
• Two darkroom timers

My experience

I hold an MA in Art Education and a BFA in Studio Art. I’m an exhibiting artist with 23 years of shows across New Mexico, Oregon, Delaware, and Chicago, a published photographer, and a working art teacher. I have deep film photography and darkroom experience, and I keep my own darkroom.

What it would take to start the darkroom

There is no public hourly darkroom anywhere in the Albuquerque metro. UNM’s darkrooms are only open to enrolled students. This space closes that gap. Here is where the founding money goes:

• Mobile darkroom sink package: ~$1,300
• Buildout (partition wall, plumbing hookup, ventilation, electrical): ~$3,000
• First and last month rent deposit: ~$1,500
• Opening paper and chemistry stock: ~$900
• Safelights, two more timers, and printing accessories: ~$1,200
• Silver recovery unit, permits, insurance, signage, contingency: ~$2,100

Starting this darkroom takes real money. The survey below asks whether you would contribute to a startup fund if I started one, and what kind of contribution you would be willing to make.

The survey

Fill it out right here on this page. Your answers come straight to me, and nothing is public except the total number of responses above.

What the survey asks