This class is for students interested in exploring the fundamentals of film and darkroom
photography. This is an entry-level workshop with no prior experience necessary. Students
will learn how to load film into the camera, process black and white negatives, make
traditional silver prints in the darkroom, and experiment with darkroom techniques
and alternative processes. Students will also explore how to make content-driven photographs
that are meaningful and important to them, while photographing each other, the USC
landscape, and Columbia. Students will leave the course with a portfolio of darkroom
prints and their processed film. The culmination of the course is an exhibition in
the School of Visual Art and Design’s Passage Gallery.
Cameras will be provided for use, but you are welcome to bring your own!
Program Dates and Audience
- June 9-14, 2024
- Rising 9-12 grade students
Program Fees
Choose from:
- Commuting Scholar - $665
- Commuting Scholar Plus Evening - $750
- Residential Scholar - $1150
Meet Your Instructor
Kathleen Robbins
Kathleen Robbins earned a BA in Studio Art from Millsaps College and an MFA in Photography from the
University of New Mexico. She is professor of art, coordinator of the photography
program and affiliate faculty of southern studies in the School of Visual Art and
Design at USC. Her photographs have been exhibited internationally in solo and group
exhibitions in galleries and museums including The Halsey Institute of Contemporary
Art, The New Orleans Photo Alliance, The Light Factory Museum of Contemporary Photography
& Film, Virginia MOCA, The Weatherspoon Museum, John Michael Kohler Art Center, the
Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Addison Gallery of American Art, The Southeast Museum
of Photography, the Society for Contemporary Photography, the Columbia Museum of Art,
and the Mississippi Museum of Art. Robbins' work has been featured by CNN, NPR, Fraction
Magazine, Conscientious, Humble Arts New York, and PDN. Her work has been printed
in the New York Times, Oxford American, and Garden and Gun. She is a past recipient
of the PhotoNOLA Review Prize for her project Into the Flatland, which was published as a monograph in 2015.