The Framing of Alex Young

Alex B. Young ’16 unlocks the door and lets me into the last functional darkroom on campus. A social studies concentrator in Lowell House, he is the president of the Harvard College Photography Club.

While almost all the Houses were built with a space intended for a darkroom, the Eliot darkroom is the last great sanctuary of film photography on campus. Young fondly describes it as "the last hold-out."

And it's a small hold-out at that. But what it lacks in size it makes up for in atmosphere. Beautiful, interesting prints, some undated and developed by anonymous Harvard students of old, line the walls of their space. The first room has old red sofas facing a whiteboard, creating a homey feel with an edge of insider ambience—a “Dead Poets Society”-esque hide out for a group of passionate photographers who keep the old art alive, as evidenced by their vivid work.

Fortunately, it's far from being an insider group. Smiling, Young explains, "We’re happy to have people who have done darkroom photography for years, and we’re also delighted to teach new people how to do it." There is no joy-sucking comp process, so anyone from newborn hipsters to highbrow film veterans can hop aboard. But, as with anything, you'll get out what you put in. It's an inclusive, educating, and encouraging environment for anyone with an enthusiasm for the classic SLR.

And patience. God forbid you're a restless case *raises hand* because everything about film is slower—albeit in a more beautiful, more intentional, and more pensive way—than digital photography.

What Young loves about film photography that the experience of using a DSLR cannot recreate is the thought process that goes into choosing a subject, deciding that its aesthetics are worth one of only, say, 35 exposures, and carefully planning how to frame it.

I feel out of place, clicking away 800 times per subject with my little Nikon D3200 and adjusting until I am happy with a shot. In everyday photography, a DSLR certainly leaves less up to chance. But the thrill of developing a photograph in a dark room and seeing it come alive on paper is golden—it’s a surprise to the photographer too in some ways.

Young leads me into the actual darkroom, talking me through the process in broad terms and sharing with me the film, test strip, and final product for a photograph he took of a statue in Croatia. He explains the method used before committing to developing a photograph: you can do test runs on a small strip by changing the settings for small sections of the strip that, in this case, create a pretty gray scale gradient.

Photography became a passion for him while he was a senior in high school back home in North Carolina. “I was fulfilling my fine arts requirement and happened to really enjoy it.” (Oh, but if only Gen Ed requirements could be so inspiring. SPU, we’re looking at you.) Back then, in the spring of his freshman year at the college when he discovered the club, there was a grand total of two members. He got involved and committed, assuming a board position quickly.

While Young typically veers toward shooting architecture, statues, and other static objects, he’s recently broadened his subject matter. “I’m really enjoying the first forays I’ve made into photographing people, especially those I’m close to. That’s been really fun,” he says.

But people are challenging “because they move and they do their own thing,” he adds. While the intentionality of film photography changes slightly when photographing people informally, they do have a more expressive spectrum of emotions that frame in a serendipitous way.

Apart from the immediate satisfaction of time spent teaching and developing in the dark room, Young and his board is looking to the future. Long-term plans for the club include the installation of a darkroom in the Quad, which, according to Young, “will take some time and effort, but it’s an exciting idea.”

In the short term, look out for exhibitions, or just creep down into Eliot basement, literally join the underground scene, and capture your very own exhibit-quality moments.

The Harvard College Photography Club meets every week on Monday and Thursday from 8pm until 10pm in the basement of Eliot’s F-entryway.