Darkroom Drawing unites photographs, drawings, and text that share Sam Margevicius’ intimate connection to the space of photographic printing. Working under the guidance of one of New York’s preeminent analog photographic printers, Margevicius touts the virtues of meditative repetition and the subjectivity of perfection by moving between rigor and playfulness. Technical printing notes become vibrant amorphic sketches, while methodical descriptions of process are interwoven with poetic anecdotes that draw readers in to this ritualistic practice. Composed primarily of risograph and laserjet prints, the book also contains two prints on traditional silver gelatin paper. One of these prints remains unfixed, allowing the light sensitive paper to change with each new viewing, while the other print depicts a sheet of silver gelatin paper immersed in its final bath of the darkroom process. These prints, like others in Darkroom Drawing, offer a physical invitation into the space where Margevicius hones his craft, asking us to examine our own relation to the fixed and ephemeral states in which we work, play, and live.
Handsewn coptic stitch with rubylith spine overlay