it is true that i have finally mostly transitioned, though kicking and screaming, into the digital realm of photography in my general practice. it is true that my entire darkroom set up currently haunts, in boxes, every spec of storage space available in my small brooklyn apartment. that is not to say that i don't fantasize about letting it breathe again in some mythical blacked out barn on some imaginary property in the country i'll have when i win the lottery. but for now, yes, i acknowledge that digital has taken me over.
i know it's the way the world of photography has gone, but i enjoy partially blaming some of it on the New School. for two years leading up to my enrollment at said university, i flipped through the course guide and circled countless darkroom classes i planned to take. although i expressed these intentions in my application, i embarked upon my first semester clueless to the fact that the darkroom where these fabled classes would occur had been torn down. when i finally became hip to this change, i was told that all of the equipment from the new school darkroom had been donated to the parsons darkroom, where i would be allowed to take classes. but when parsons figured out ways to get around that promise i was funneled to the Educational Alliance, an incredible community force whose art school boasted alumnus such as Barnett Newman, Adolph Gottlieb and Mark Rothko. it was at the Educational Alliance, not the New School as I'd imagined, where i found a home in a darkroom.
now the Art School at the Educational Alliance faces a similarly vague and sneaky fate at the hands of a building renovation.
To read a very thorough explanatory article by the Lo-Down: click here
My petition comment below:
I came to the Educational Alliance in 2005 when the New School University replaced its historic (built during Berenice Abbott's reign as instructor) darkroom with a wide hallway. The betrayal I felt by the mindless demolition of the very reason I enrolled at the New School has not faded in the passing years. I was lucky at that time, however, to be welcomed by The Educational Alliance to finish my current semester at their lovely darkroom. I had such a great experience that I continued for several semesters at the Educational Alliance, despite continuing my full course-load at the New School. Michael Macioce was one of the finest and most inspiring instructors I have had the honor to learn from. It makes me very sad to contemplate the thought of the endangering of another historic and important art program due to thoughtless plans for renovation.
and finally, me standing proudly by my work displayed at credit suisse, an opportunity brought to me by the educational alliance--not the new school.
