Shooting Darkrooms with Digital

Campeau is choosing his locations based on people he knows. He went to Naimey, because he had a friend who is an expert on photography in North Africa. She guided him around the small city, and in less than two weeks he had shot about thirty darkrooms.

Unlike Havana and light-years away from Berlin, Campeau was surprised to find a lack of artistic interest in photography.

“For a photographer there it’s a job. They’re mainly doing identity portraits for various identification cards. There are no pretensions about any type of artistic worth, or that work will be shown in exhibitions there or abroad.”

Campeau will have to hurry to complete his project. In Naimey, like the rest of the world’s poorest regions, the decline of the darkroom is happening much faster due to a lack of material supply and money to buy what materials are still being produced.

Adding a touch of irony to the project, Campeau shoots his darkrooms with a small amateur digital camera.

Three of Michel Campeau’s Niamey prints will be on display along with some of his Montreal prints until Sat October 11 at Montreal’s Galerie Simon Blais .

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