Wet Plate Collodion Demonstration with Greg Martin

Greg Martin demonstrated the 19th Century photographic technique known as Wet Plate Collodion to a packed house at the Print Room this past weekend.  Here are some photos from his presentation.

DARKROOM DREAMLAND

Cleveland Business Connects magazine is featuring an article about the Print Room in this month’s issue!:

Shari Wilkins finds a home for old photographs

Shari Wilkins discovered early on the truth to the adage, “A picture paints a thousand words.”

Her lifelong appreciation for historic photography was sparked in her youth, when her grandmother would show Wilkins old black-and-white family snapshots and entertain her with colorful stories about them. She also learned to value unique photos from her father, an amateur photographer, whose 1950s Kodachrome images depicted interesting panoramic views of New York City buildings and dynamic streets bustling with people.

Read the rest at their website, here!

Video overview of our “HOMEGROWN” exhibit

CPR’s videographer, Brandon Schneider, has put together this great short video overview of our current exhibit, HOMEGROWN – Northeast Ohio Photographers, featuring comments from co-curator Jonathan Wayne.  Check it out!

CPR, Partnered with the Cleveland International Film Festival, presents “The Great Flood”

Cleveland Print Room is the Cleveland International Film Festival‘s Community Partner for Bill Morrison’s film, “The Great Flood” at this year’s festival.

The Great Flood, an 80-minute film showing April 9th, 10th, and 11th, is a wordless film collaged together from vintage archival newsreel newsreel footage accompanied by a new soundtrack by Bill Frisell, and concerns the great 1927 flood of the Mississippi River, the most destructive river flood in American history.

Check out the preview trailer, and come visit our table outside the Cleveland Film Festival theater showings of this film!

HOMEGROWN exhibit at the Cleveland Print Room opening Friday March 15th from 5-9PM.

Over twenty local photographers are being showcased in our latest exhibit, along with the Northeast Ohio food movement and community-supported agriculture.

HOMEGROWN is a collaborative effort linking local food and local photography at the same venue.

Sample delicious dishes from local food restaurants and check out selected products from local urban farms. Sign up for a CSA and learn about sustainability in Cleveland. Join us for this food & photo extravaganza!

Photographers being presented in the show include:  Nina Barcellona, Jerry Birchfield, Preston Buchtel, Billy Delfs, Matthew Fehrmann, Diana Hlywiak, Brandon Juhasz, Lori Kella, Dan LaGuardia, Honey Lazar, Dan Levin, Michael Loderstadt, Greg Martin, Steven Mastroianni, Angelo Merendino, Joseph Minek, Michelle Murphy, Rene Psiakis, Tanya Shteinfeld, Mark Slankard, Paul Sobota, Mary Jo Toles, Barry Underwood, Mike Wallace, and Garie Waltzer.

The following is a list of local food restaurants and local food sources that are participating in this Friday’s opening event:
Blue Pike Farm C.S.A., The Root Cafe, Flying Fig, The Botanical Gardens, Fire, Fresh Fork, Momocho, Edible Cleveland, Spice, Rising Star Coffee, Breadsmith, the City of Cleveland Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, Lucky Penny Farm Creamery, Farm Share, Cleveland Crops, Tremont Farmers Market and TheCharmedKitchen.com.

HOMEGROWN advances CPR’s goal of highlighting the depth and breadth of photographic work with the fertile, artistic environment of Northeast Ohio, while collaborating with other community organizations.

Cool Cleveland review & slideshow of our Darkroom Grand Opening!

Cool Cleveland wrote a great review and posted some wonderful pictures of the grand opening celebration for our community darkroom — check it out here!

The Cleveland Plain Dealer Writes about our Darkroom Opening

Steven Litt, art critic of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, has published an interview and article about our darkroom’s Grand Opening.  Check out the article here!

CPR Pinhole Camera Club

Join us on Sunday, March 10 at 1:00 pm for the first of our monthly Pinhole Workshops!

We will be building pinhole cameras, taking photographs with them, then developing and printing the photos in the darkroom.

No photographic experience necessary — All equipment & materials will be supplied.

Cost: CPR Members — $20
Non-Members — $25

Limited space available for this workshop — please call to pre-pay and reserve your spot! 216-401-5981

You can find the Facebook event page for this meeting here.

CLEVELAND’S ONLY COMMUNITY DARKROOM TO HOST GRAND OPENING RECEPTION FRIDAY FEBRUARY 22, 2013.

The Cleveland Print Room is opening its community darkroom, and beginning a program of all-ages, all-skill-level educational photography workshops.

The opening signals Cleveland Print Room’s next step in its mission of serving the larger photographic community through its focus on hand-processed photography with an accessible community darkroom, collaborative workspace, gallery, and classes.

In 2005, Print Room founder Shari Wilkins noticed a troubling trend — many high schools, arts centers, and universities were actively downsizing and decommissioning their darkroom facilities, and eliminating traditional photography from their curricula. Also during this time, Polaroid ceased making their groundbreaking instant film, and Kodak discontinued their exceptionally stunning Kodachrome film. While digital photography has impacted the way people snap and share images, further opening up the once-expensive craft to the masses, Wilkins affirms that there is plenty to be said for the satisfaction of hand-processed photography.

Conveniently located on the first floor of the ArtCraft Building on Superior Avenue, the nonprofit Cleveland Print Room features a large community darkroom with eight enlargers. Still hanging in the gallery, the Print Room’s inaugural exhibit features stunning large-format pinhole camera photographs by Vaughn Wascovich, which will remain on display through February 28th.

Membership to the newly-opened Cleveland Print Room, which will allow members to use the darkroom facilities, runs $35 annually for individuals, $20 for students, with a fee of $15 for the first 3 hours of a session, and $5 per additional hour. For dedicated darkroom enthusiasts, there is also the HARDCORE CPR membership, which consists of an annual contract that runs $100/month and offers no hourly fees to use the darkroom, among other perks.

An Open House reception is slated for Friday, February 22nd, from 5-9 pm with tours of the darkroom available. To celebrate this event, visitors will be encouraged to make “Rayogram” prints in the darkroom. Come try your hand at the process made famous by artist Man Ray and celebrate this milestone for photography in Cleveland.

“Welcome to Hard Times” Reviewed in Cleveland Scene

Joseph Clark of Cleveland Scene magazine wrote a great review of Vaughn Wascovich’s current exhibit at CPR in this week’s issue — check it out!