I do not know what if, any photographic development and black and white photographic print making, Percy did before they moved to 10 Willis Avenue. But, he was certainly well set-up in that house with a full dark room to enlarge and enhance the prints he made.
Working in a Photographic Dark Room
I did spend one or two occasions when I was allowed to watch him for short periods in his dark room.
The room was completely black-dark when the door was shut. I think he used black adhesive-backed tape on all the wall panels around the room to shut-out even the tiniest chink of light. There was a red lamp in the room which he worked with, so as not to spoil the photo-sensitive papers, film and slides.
I think he also had a lamp outside the door indicating when he was working with undeveloped light sensitive materials.
If the door had been opened when developing or loading a plate or film, it would “fog” the film or prints being worked on at the time.
When they moved to Byfleet the Dark Room he had created at Willis Avenue was recreated in the loft space of the bungalow.
He planned and built his new dark room from scratch and built it from wood and hardboard, making it entirely himself.
Film Development
When Percy started his photographic hobby and took the photos of his own children that you see here, there would have been few amateur photographers, and (Chemist Shop) film development services may not have been available.
When I knew Percy he seldom used the commercial photo development services available in those days. I am sure that there must have been occasions when he used commercial development and print services. But, they would be rare. He produced prints and gave them to the family for our various albums, even when the rest of us were routinely taking photos and having them developed and printed.
I think that all his life he probably considered the use of a commercial photo development service as a soft-option, a bit like cheating, and too expensive!
It is easy to forget that to be “artistic” with the photo output, was impossible for the commercially processed film printing of those days. I’m sure he would have loved to be able to use digital photography with all the graphics editing software available.
Percy would have been relatively affluent from his salary from his accountancy job, so he was able to buy good cameras and the film chemicals and light-sensitive papers needed to use them.
I think he enjoyed his cameras, film developing, and enlarging equipment,. These things were new at the time, and what we might now call at the “cutting edge of technology”.
Steve Last
