What is a darkroom? Both philosophically and, literally, it appears as one viewer of Netflix’s popular sci-fi series Stranger Things found himself absolutely baffled as to what the “red room” in the show was and what was going on there.
If that isn’t a sign of how much things have changed, we don’t know what is.
PetaPixel reports that StackExchange user posted, “In Stranger Things, we frequently see Jonathan go inside this to ‘refine’ his photos or something. I don’t quite understand what happens here…He puts the photo in water, and somehow this makes it more clear?”
“To ‘refine’ his photos or something.”
I have never felt older in my life.
Anyway, forum users took the question in stride as PetaPixel points out with many of them explaining what a darkroom was and that the water he was referencing were chemicals used to develop the film.
And from this, a meme was born. Mainly the meme references how old this makes most of us feel. But, being the Internet, not everyone was so accommodating and understanding. Some called the question poster’s intelligence into question.
We should all look on the bright side. This is a great opportunity to talk to people about film and how it can be utterly magical to work with as far as photography is concerned. If a darkroom is a baffling concept, then imagine explaining how to develop film and not knowing what your captured until then. That’s a pretty huge cultural difference from the Instagram era in all fairness.
You can check out the post on StackExchange by clicking here.
What about you? Has anything ever made you feel like you’ve been in the photography game for forever and a day? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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2 Comments
I have been in the photo game forever and a day. I acquired my first camera in 1968. It was a Polaroid Swinger. I was 8 years old. I paid for it with my paper route money. How many of you remember the Swinger?
That means something different these days, Kent.