I was in my third year at Junior School and my new class teacher, Mr Dennis, had emptied out the classroom store room and converted it into a tiny b & w darkroom.
About a half dozen of us were allowed to stay after school for one hour per week to learn the mysterious alchemy of photography.
Using pinhole cameras, then Kodak “box Brownies” we had to learn everything from scratch – how the devices work, the magic chemistry of film developing and printing; not to mention composition and presentation.
However, for me, I will never ever forget the first negative I processed for myself and then printed up in that tiny box of a darkroom. It was out of focus, under-exposed and suffered from camera shake, but the awe and wonder I experienced when the image first appeared in the tray as if by magic, right in front of my eyes, had me speechless.
I was 9 years old and I was hooked.