Members Exclusive: The Art of the Darkroom

Be among the first to explore this series of process-based darkroom courses, created exclusively for Tate Members ahead of general release

Step into the darkroom with Sustainable Darkroom and explore photography as a material, creative, and experimental art form. Presented as part of Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography, this programme of hands-on courses celebrates image-making through process-led practice and an arts-for-art’s-sake approach to photography. It offers a rare opportunity to develop new skills and produce unique, personalised prints.Each course focuses on a different photographic process, from cyanotypes and botanical toning to natural chemistry chemigrams and phytograms. Working with low-toxicity and plant-based chemistries, you’ll gain insight into how photographs are formed, transformed, and experienced as physical objects.The prints you create can be kept as finished artworks or developed further into personalised works through digitisation and reworking into other formats such as cards, textiles, and printed objects.Drawing on the history of global pictorialism and alternative photographic practices, these courses invite experimentation, play, and technical discovery in the darkroom, in direct dialogue with the exhibition.Explore the courses below to discover each process and secure your place during the Members’ priority booking period. Members receive an exclusive discount on both these sessions and the wider public programme. For longer-form processes and more in-depth study, see the main course schedule, which includes dry plate photography, gum printing, silver gelatin printing, and more.