Master Black and White Darkroom Printer - Robin Bell full interview 

Robin bell is a true gentleman. He answers every single question I had for him on Instagram and basically proves that there is no shortcut to experience. No tricks and no gimmicks. Lovely gentleman.

As someone who still prints in a darkroom this was a fascinating watch/listen. Thanks for doing this.

I was 8 years old when my parents gave me a Kodak developing kit. When I saw the images appear on the negatives, and then on the paper, it was like magic. And to me, it still is magical.

I agree with Brunhide Vink. There is nothing like a beautifully developed black and white photograph. But if you have a passion for photography, then you shoot film, digital, black and white, and color. It depends on what you are doing. The first camera I ever bought was a Canon AT1 match needle, NOT the Canon AE1. Why you may wonder? The AT1 is manual NOT automatic. But it has a through the lens exposure meter. With the AT1, I can do more things. That is I have control as to what I'm setting. Also, if I'm going to compose a picture (red barn, white fence, and blue sky) I can take my time. Also with the metering, I can decide where to meter. If I want a very deep depth - of - field, I can set my camera to a small lens opening, then adjust my shutter speed accordingly. Now if the shutter speed is too slow, then I can mount the camera on a tripod. I can take a meter reading from the palm of my hand.....I can do all kinds of things. But not with the Canon AE1 which is automatic. Now then, depending on what you're doing, you may need an auto camera. So photography is everything.

I am a little late to the party, but just found this interview with Robin, which I very much enjoyed. I had the great pleasure of meeting Robin during his Silver Footprint exhibition in Lucy's gallery, which at the time was situated in Battle. The exhibition was a real eye opener, exhibiting the silver print in its rawest form. I found Robin to be very open about his printing technique, and he very kindly shared his formula for his thiourea based toner with me, which I am still using today. If I ever need inspiration, Robin's book of the exhibition is still the one I reach for off the shelf. A Silver Footprint '2' Perhaps? Thank you very much for sharing.

Given I am returning to film after a dithery and disaster strewn distraction with digital, I loved this. Insightful but also laugh out loud funny at times. He has one of those strong minded but faux grumpy, naturally humoures personas!

Great interview with one of the last remaining great Masters of the art. And he's kept all his own hair too. Quite remarkable.

We also had a quick turnaround time with film in Los Angeles we could even get a snip test done in a half an hour before we dumped the days film in the chemistry! Great video power to anybody that can work in the dark room it’s a talent!

A wonderful interview. Thank you!

As someone that works for an Ilford Master B&W darkroom printer and a master platinum printer amongst other high end professionals - developing their negatives, digitising their old archives to the highest quality with the latest equipment and supplying them with the developer I manufacture as it's become their main go to favourite - it's always fascinating to see other masters talk about their work

What an invaluable interview!

What a great, relaxed interview.

Robin is MY kind of darkroom technician. He sounds so much like the late Brett Weston, Ansel Adams darkroom printer. Weston and I sublimated ourselves to the "character" of the photographers we worked for, developing their negatives to their vison and printing to their taste, which isn't an easy thing. I could listen to Robin Bell for hours and watch him in his darkroom for weeks. I am in total agreement with him on digital B&W prints vs: silver gelatin prints. Canon has tried six ink tanks on their large B&W "art" printer for more "depth" to their images. "A" for effort, but "C+" for the images. Most other printers get a "D" from me. Statement: Today, few people know what a GOOD B&W image LOOKS like.

This was a wonderful interview! I am freshly new to the darkroom and am thrilled to learn how to be skilled!!

This was incredibly interesting. Great interview

Absolutely superb! Can't thank you enough.

Wow, what a fantastic interview, and more importantly an interesting person Robin Bell is. As a 61 printer and photographer this was a delight to listen too. Bill Brandt, Bailey, Horst P Horst, Parkinson, Donovan etc where my idols in the late 70's, 80's, and here i am listening to this interview with their printer, so interesting, someone who has so much to talk about this beautiful art of photographic darkroom printing. I could listen to him for hours. Thanks for putting this together.

Really enjoyed the interview, good questions and an honest discussion - fantastic.

Great interview

This was excellent, thanks for uploading the full interview. I loved the interview on the episode, but I kinda knew you two would have yapped for a while more. Fantastic stuff.

The dodge and burning technique was so cool, specially the burn in using hand gestures 🤯

Hi folks: Thank you for bringing this full interview version to your audience. I found the discussions very enlightening indeed and an enjoyable. I hope that you continue to bring this type of interview to the channel in the future. Cheers, Keith

I have had some prints done by Robin, they are fantastic !. He really is a special talent, and if you need top quality he is your man. If I remember the price was very reasonable.

Thank you Marcus and Robin for such a fascinating interview. Truly inspiring. Great idea to show the whole interview as Robin’s insights are well worth hearing in full. Going to look at my black and white negatives and see which ones deserve Robin’s sumptuous skills.

Fabulous interview, love the humour too, how very dare you!

I love his reaction to digital. I too love printing in a darkroom, would love to be able to learn from him. :)

The full interview is even better than the edited version. Having met the man when the exhibition of his book, Robin Bell's Silver Footprint, was taking place, some years ago, I am very tempted to have one of my negs printed by him.

There's a guy on RU-vid - The Naked Photographer - who has used his mobile phone as the enlarging lamp and negative (negative image on the screen), projected through the enlarger lens and make a decent black and white image from it. I think this answers both your questions. The trouble is the pixels pattern shows up on the print.

Hahahahaha “But what’s the point?” “It’s fun!” “No it isn’t, it’s just mucking about!” Harsh yet true words on esoteric film choices. :)

Could listen to your conversation for hours. Thank you very much. As an amateur darkroom printer I noticed that old fiber papers (if properly stored) give me more satisfying prints than fiber papers of today. You touched this topic but did not ask Robin directly about comparison (I think I understand reasons). I interpret his gesture at 9:27 as such comparison though. If that is the case what is the reason of this difference between old and modern fiber papers? Maybe I am wrong with assumption. Best regards, Maciej from Poland

The whole projector idea, the problem is that the best displays are 10bit. That's only 1024 distinct monochrome tones. And even that would require some sort of special projector, as normal ones are 8bit, meaning only 256 tones. The way negatives are made form digital, uses CRT monitors that are analog devices and thus have infinite "bits", just like film. DeVere actually has a digital enlarger, DE VERE 504DS that can output 17MP. Thats the other problem, 17MP is really nothing in print. 8k screens would be 32MP. That would get you a small print. The resolution of silver print can be even more than that of a film, so it would just end up looking soft like most inkjets that are printed with too small files.

I just watched this video and checked De Vere website to see what enlargers they have to find out that they’re actually making an enlarger to print from a digital file. DE VERE 504DS Digital Enlarger 12:43

About the “lambda print” fujifilm has the frontier LP9700. Which is a silver halide paper printer.

"Digital tsunami" - I love this man. Film photography is like a black hole of knowledge and skill development. First just shooting film, then developing and finally printing.

Your face rings a bell Robin were you working at the London College of Printing in the late 80’s early 90’s?

Thank you . Negative film developing is a craft of its own. Photographing with film is an art creating. .

I've made a darkroom print from a digital image before, I inverted it then I printed it out on special transparent sheet with a special high-fidelity printer and made contact prints of that on 8x10 paper, you could also use it as an 8x10 negative. it has different characteristics to a standard negative so you need to adjust some things but it works pretty well

consider interviewing Quinn Jacobson been subbed to his channel for some time. this was a very pleasant interview to watch

Fantastic, thanks for sharing! I can't find that other video you are referring to, were Bell is supposedly printing your taxi driver portrait. Any chance I could watch it somewhere?

Amazing!

9:35 - No worries Robin, we all miss the good Agfa stuff, it's back soon, Adox MCC should be on for sale again next year :) it matches the old Agfa stuff.

Anybody know what that book is in the first part of the video, the one they're paging through?

Good on you Robin Bell. The difference between a SGFB print and digital inkjet print in a side-by-side comparison is the proverbial ‘chalk and cheese’, and if you prefer the flat, murky, depressed tones of the digital inkjet print then you should certainly qualify to buy it at its deservedly reduced price tag. In shutting down darkrooms everywhere and throwing the old projection SG enlarging technique away we are forgetting that the print processes themselves, whilst initially beginning with a camera capture and ending with a print in the hand, are two completely different production methods involving different skills, techniques and materials. It’s a bit like saying ‘let’s scrap watercolour painting because we’ve got oil painting instead’ when in fact they are different art forms with quite different ‘looks’ to say nothing, in the case of the SGFB-vs. DIGITAL photographic comparison, about matters of archival longevity. Fortunately the world of product marketing and proliferation won’t ever let this happen; if you look at evolving technical trends and developments we always see a trend toward technical and product diversification rather than consolidation. (For example, first came the lead pencil, then the woodless or wood cased pencil, then various grades of leads, then coloured pencils, then fountain pens, then biros, and even now the stylus for our tablets) so we should always be able to buy film and print paper, and in fact nothing much has changed with these products in the past 150 or so years. People will make their own decisions about print appearance and quality, and some people just won’t care, and that’s natural too. If Robin is an Apple iOS user he should check out my app enLARGE on the Apple AppStore which will help him to conserve those interesting older packets of FB that are cowering up there in the corner… so afraid and alone…

Was just looking at the De Vere website. They have a digital enlarger just like he’s suggesting - projects a digital file onto paper. No negatives involved. Probably costs a bomb, couldn’t find a price. But sounds v cool.

Could someone inform me what the name of the book was they kept showing photographs from please.

It exits now. They use a special silver gelatin paper that responds to a laser burst of light. BUT, and it is a big but, it is not the same as an enlarger that puts light through a silver negative. That light bounces and scatters as it passed through the silver layers giving a tone and sense of depth that cannot be emulated by 1's and 0's. I can almost always, instantly differentiate an actual B&W image made by traditional materials from some digital emulation.

For some reason, I can't get sound while watching this. Is there a glitch with my smartphone?

Interesting - a bit hostile in some areas but still very informative about the printers life. Seems to use a lot of warmtone Ilford at least from the collection of boxes behind him. I'm curious what is in the illy coffee cans.

The darkroom is still being used by artists, thank god

Robin Bell is a master printer.

Always wonderful segments! My question is, would it be better to send him a roll of film to develop and see if any would be a good candidate to enlarge; or should I develop the roll here (United States) and send him the negative that I wish to enlarge? Thank you again for amazing content!

There is no need for a digital enlarged head because the analog process is just good as it is. The quality of the silver gelatin emulsion of the film is an important component of it.

Interesting to see the printer has a bit of snobbery regarding sprayed on prints that an oil painter would have towards the printer.

Until you see silver gelatin in the flesh you have no conversation it’s like comparing a Rolls Royce and a Škoda .

It is important to document this chapter of photgraphic history before the people involved disappear along with the history and knowledge.

Devere builds a digital enlarger that accomplishes what the interviewer is looking for.

This isn’t meant to be snarky but in light(pun intended) of his comments about sumptuousity of silver gelatine prints and they having a visual depth to them, isn’t reading(actually looking at) Robin Bell's book Silver Footprint with lots of images something akin to listening to a discussion with audio examples of stereophonic sound on AM radio? Wouldn’t the books images need to be printed on photographic paper otherwise what’s the point?

What is the book you keep flicking through with wonderful prints?

Of course "it" exists - the great British enlarger manufacturer De Vere make such a machine (you can find them at Odyssey Sales).

I think they are starting to print from digital. At least instax are. They have made an instagramer dream with a digital camera with preset filters that prints to instax film.

Great interview, feel that he’s a bit passive aggressive about the modern times though, maybe its just me.

FPP Super Positive? :)

The projection idea doesn’t work because the projector is a bottleneck in terms of resolution, tone fidelity and dynamic range. You could do it but the result would be degraded by those limits

Good information but too much ego!

Digital photography is like taking a helicopter to the top of Mount Everest. You got there, but you didn’t really accomplish anything.

Totally rigid British man who knows it all. Maybe it is a good thing to be like that since he still has full head of hair.

Digital is lifeless, there is no organic matter to it, its flat, it looks bad and overhyped, everybody is like blood thirsty for zillions of pixels, taking all soul out of the photographic process, giving it all to the machine, embracing the lifeless and the mediocre. Since i jumped to analog, there is no way back to digital for me. I am yet to get my enlarger in a couple of days/weeks but i will never shoot digital nor use a damn inkjet printer ever again. More than the ethics and a sense of snubbing, its about the feeling of it, embracing the slowness and unpredictability of the analog medium, and its way more enriching on all aspects, as well as giving it value. Modern photography sucks hard, most people dont realize it because they love mediocrity, just look at the world, look at the arts of our days how poor it became. It is devolution we are living. Look at the architecture of our days, how ridiculous it looks compared to hundreds of years ago, and yet there is this demon screaming for modernity, for the futuristic, how cool it is, but it simply isn’t. Its like everybody know it but fakes it in the same time, calling people who shoot analog people who hang on to the past, and they wont admit that we suck harder than any generation before us. That easier and faster doesnt mean better at all, rather the contrary. Everything looked better aesthetically at least a hundred years ago, so were the people having beautiful and godly values, art was at its peak, it saw plenty of movements from pictorialism, to impressionism in painting, sculptures, world fairs of all sorts, the world was booming with life and human power. It was full of soul. Now its all about the machine, about geometry, the soulless, the oversaturated fake colors, consumed and then dumped a second later. F the current world, there is no progress at all, everything is becoming regressive and pathetic, so im not even going to bother with the current world, it speaks for itself how the photographers and artists of the past as whole were better. Michelangelo and Davinci must be crying if they can have a peak at what people do in our days…. We call them masters in our days, but they were no masters at all, they were just curious people, always experimenting, trying new things, hard working, hard thinking, hard listening, fearing God, thats who they were, the Josef Sudek, Clarence H White, Edward Weston, Stieglitz, Demachy, Misonne and alike. Their legacy speak for itself. But nowadays photographers, their work mean nothing nor will their work be studied or looked at in 10 years from now, but those of a 100 years ago ? They became foundation and every respectable photographer is to follow them, not the clowns of our days. I am no one, not even a good photographer, and i pity myself for being part of this godless generation. I cannot fake anything anymore, I’ve seen it, modern photography has nothing modern about it, its just destructive as it can be. Destroying photography and destroying people. Digital is clearly evil, f it

You can't polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter...