{"id":89747,"date":"2025-01-25T10:15:27","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T17:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=89747"},"modified":"2025-03-17T15:01:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T22:01:47","slug":"the-red-room-develops-community-with-an-open-dark-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/the-red-room-develops-community-with-an-open-dark-room\/","title":{"rendered":"The Red Room Develops Community with an Open Dark Room"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Three photographers in Salt Lake City have opened The Red Room at Art Space Commons. From left, Jillian Meyer, Angelique Yvonne and Sarah Taylor. Image courtesy of The Red Room.<\/p><\/div>\n

Looking to break down barriers of entry into the art world, specifically in the alternative processes of film photography, a trio of Salt Lake City photographers has turned their workspace at Art Space Commons into a community darkroom. With The Red Room, Jillian Meyer<\/a>, Sarah Taylor and Angelique Yvonne<\/a> have embraced a community-centric model, opening up a sometimes closed-off field by offering a space to create without economic or knowledge prerequisites. Building on what they\u2019ve experienced amongst themselves, they aim to forge a community space for photographers to create together.<\/h4>\n

\u201cAll three of us are printing here, why not make it where more people can use it?\u201d says Taylor, a Tennessee native who attended Watkins College of Art. \u201cBecause in reality, what we want is the community part of it.\u201d<\/h4>\n

\u201cWe are obsessed with alternative processes and the community aspect and sharing art with people and doing it with people and inspiring each other,\u201d says Meyer, a self-taught photographer from Michigan.<\/h4>\n

\u201cThe community [is] essential to being an artist. It helps you grow to be around people who are also creating. Not that you\u2019re comparing yourself to their work, but talking about ideas, critiquing, being in the same room as other people is inspiring and it pushes the art and the community even further,\u201d says Yvonne, a local who attended Utah Valley University School of the Arts.<\/h4>\n

The Red Room works off a punch-pass system, guests can either purchase a one-off session or a pass with six or 12, two-hour sessions. The first time someone uses the studio, the organizers offer a one-on-one demo, allowing for any skill level to walk in and develop their negatives into prints. The Red Room has a color processor, setting it apart from other darkrooms in the city, allowing participants the opportunity to develop in both color and black and white. The trio is also hosting donation-based workshops teaching different alternative processes to those quick enough to sign up, as the limited spots go quick.<\/h4>\n
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Interior view of The Red Room at Artspace Commons. Image courtesy of The Red Room.<\/p><\/div>\n

This community darkroom mobilizes the idea that we can communally pass information around so that anyone can learn and forever have that knowledge to take it wherever they will. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to cultivate creation,\u201d Yvonne says. \u201cFor everyone. You don\u2019t have to be a photographer. People are getting creative and you don\u2019t have to be anything to do it. We\u2019re creating a space where we\u2019re teaching people how to make stuff on their own\u2014that is really what this is about rather than us selling something,\u201d<\/h4>\n

With the rise of AI and screens transforming the field for artists after Covid, spaces like The Red Room are bringing community back into art, returning to the tactile realm of developing from film, to paper, to wall. \u201cEverybody got so insular in Covid, everyone is on screens and got this idea that we are all in it for our own selves. I think people forget how much better it feels to be a part of the community and to help people,\u201d Taylor says. \u201cTeaching people how to use the darkroom has been the most fulfilling feeling ever.\u201d<\/h4>\n
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Interior view of The Red Room at Artspace Commons. Image courtesy of The Red Room.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWhat brought [the three of] us together was the tactile access of film and printing in the space,\u201d Yvonne says. \u201cIt makes you slow down and appreciate the process. Which is the whole point of film and the alternative process \u2013 the making rather than the result,\u201d Taylor says. \u201cYou don\u2019t know what you\u2019re going to get in the end. You\u2019re going to have dust on it, you\u2019re going to have hair on it. You\u2019re going to have a light leak. It\u2019s going to be something that you didn\u2019t picture beforehand, but it turns out all of those imperfections make it that much better.\u201d<\/h4>\n

\u201cArt is being consumed so quickly now,\u201d Yvonne says. \u201cA print that we made took us an hour and a half to get right, and it\u2019s consumed in two seconds.\u201d<\/h4>\n

In October, the space officially opened and in December, the three hosted a group show launching the space. Friends and new faces huddled together in the small space, intimate at the fore. Bringing focus back to the moment\u2014the art\u2014and presence among each other. They have already hosted a cyanotype workshop, teaching participants the process and having them walk away with personalized tote, shirt or print. In February, they are hosting a Valentine’s Day couples workshop for friends and lovers, with wine and chocolate and a color printing demonstration, eventually leaving the couple alone to print together. In March they hope to host a tin-type workshop, followed by a palladium making workshop and another cyanotype workshop. They will focus the space on donation based workshops and classes of the various alternative processes and dark room printing rather than gallery shows with the limitations of the small space.<\/h4>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s getting people out of looking at work on their phones and looking at work out here,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cI am going to ride that high [from the opening in December] for months. That came from everyone getting a sense of community, seeing other people satisfied in person.\u201d<\/h4>\n

The Red Room is part of a generational combat young millennials and GenZ creatives have to fight everyday, fighting for mental space against Big Internet, against screens, in order to get themselves in the public eye. It\u2019s also part of a combat for physical space in a rapidly developing city. \u201cInstead of having stupid luxury apartments going up all over, why don\u2019t we have more spaces where we can build our own businesses, that will fuel the economy, that will help the entire community of Salt Lake by people having access,\u201d Yvonne asks.<\/h4>\n