When Light Enters the Darkroom

In the days before digital photography, photographers developed their images in darkrooms — small, sealed rooms bathed in dim red safelight. The photographic paper sat in chemical baths, holding a latent image invisible to the eye. Nothing could be seen until the moment of exposure. When the enlarger clicked on and white light poured through the negative, the image began to appear — slowly, unmistakably — shadows forming into faces, landscapes, moments frozen in silver halide crystals.…