Step into the darkroom with Sustainable Darkroom and explore photography as a material, creative, and experimental art form. Presented as part of the Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography exhibition, this series of hands-on courses celebrates the craft of image-making through process-based practice and an arts-for-art's-sake approach to photography.
Each course focuses on a different photographic process, from multi-coloured cyanotypes and black-and-white silver gelatin printing to homemade dry plates, botanical toning, gum printing, chemigrams, and phytograms. Working with low-toxicity and plant-based chemistries, you'll learn how photographs are made, transformed, and experienced as physical objects.
Inspired by the history of global pictorialism and alternative photographic practices, these courses invite you to experiment, play, and develop new skills in the darkroom.
Explore the courses below to discover each process and book your place. These courses will take place in the darkroom within the exhibition and include access to the show.
Explore the programme
Low-Toxicity Gum Printing
31 October 2026, 10.30–16.30
Join Sustainable Darkroom for a day of thinking and making through histories of colour photography for a more just colour photographic future.
During this session, you will learn about the entangled histories of analogue colour photography, (synthetic) dye production, and agricultural imperialism through producing red, green, blue (RGB) colour separated images. You will be introduced to the gum diazo method; a low-toxicity gum printing process that uses diazo in place of dichromate salts.
Combining historical photographic and contemporary screen printing techniques to produce analogue colour photographic images, participants will experiment and play with a variety of plant-based pigments (e.g. woad, madder, weld) while learning about the use of colour separation to produce full-colour vegetal prints from black and white film negatives.
Teacher: Matthew Beach
B&W Silver Gelatin Printing with Home-made Iron Based Developers
14 November 2026, 11.00–16.00
Learn how to make a photographic developer and print your own images in the darkroom using old rusty nails and common household ingredients.
In this workshop, you will learn the chemistry behind photographic developers, how they work and how to make your own using scraps of iron such as old rusty nails or pipes. Following this, you will work in pairs to learn how to print in the darkroom using a traditional enlarger, using your home-made chemistry to develop your photographic images. This workshop is open to all levels, you do not need any prior darkroom experience.
Teacher: Hannah Fletcher
Home-made Dry Plates with Plant Based Developers
28 November 2026, 10.30–16.30
Join us for a thorough demonstration in the darkroom of how to prepare and coat dry plates for use in large/ medium format cameras. During the workshop we will be working with an antique medium format field camera.
During the session, you will understand the nuances of this slow photographic process and the ethical and caring framework that comes with it. Participants will then learn how to expose the dry plates, taking portraits of each other or a still life set up, before developing them in the darkroom using locally made plant-based developers. You will be able to take home your completed glass dry plate, which can be displayed as it is, or used to print from in other photographic processes.
Teacher: Eileen White
B&W Silver Gelatin Printing with Muddy Developers
16 January 2027, 11.00–16.00
This workshop explores some of the exciting possibilities you have to design your own developers for print. You will learn how to make a muddy semi-solid developer using just wood ash and used coffee grounds. Semi-solid developers are made solely from plant materials and waste matter. They have a thick, mud-like consistency and require longer developing times. They are fast to biodegrade, very low in toxicity, and a lot of fun to work with!
During the session we will experiment with using the muddy developer across a range of photographic papers. You will have the chance to use the muddy developer to create unique, textured prints both in the light and in the darkroom, printing contact prints and negatives using the enlargers. Alongside this, you will learn about the origins and research behind this recipe, created by Andrés Pardo of CuriosoLab, and how to store and neutralise the developer for home-composting.
Teacher: Hannah Fletcher
Multicolour Cyanotypes
23 January 2027, 10.30–16.30
Join Sustainable Darkroom for a day of thinking and making through histories of colour photography for a more just colour photographic future.
This workshop covers the process of building up a multicolour image using the cyanotype process and plant based toners. You will have the chance to make a number of multicoloured images, each one slightly different from the next. Through this, you will understand the importance of balancing colours and calibration across the whole process, as well as how to prepare the papers and toners.
We will work with pressed botanicals to build up multidimensional, multicolour imagery. There will also be the option to bring your own digital negatives to create a more traditional multicoloured image. If you are doing this, Hannah will provide instructions for how to print your digital negatives ahead of the session.
Teacher: Hannah Fletcher
Home-made Dry Plates with Plant Based Developers
6 February 2027, 10.30–16.30
Join us for a thorough demonstration in the darkroom of how to prepare and coat dry plates for use in large/ medium format cameras. During the workshop we will be working with an antique medium format field camera.
During the session, you will understand the nuances of this slow photographic process and the ethical and caring framework that comes with it. Participants will then learn how to expose the dry plates, taking portraits of each other of a still life set up, before developing them in the darkroom using locally made plant-based developers. You will be able to take home your completed glass or perspex dry plate, which can be displayed as it is, or used to print from in other photographic processes.
Teacher: Eileen White
B&W Silver Gelatin Printing with Home-made Plant Based Chemistries
20 February 2027, 11.00–16.00
Learn how to make a photographic developer and print your own images in the darkroom using old rusty nails and common household ingredients.
In this workshop, you will learn the chemistry behind photographic developers, how they work and how to make your own using scraps of iron such as old rusty nails or pipes. Following this, you will work in pairs to learn how to print in the darkroom using a traditional enlarger, using your home-made chemistry to develop your photographic images. This workshop is open to all levels, you do not need any prior darkroom experience.
Teacher: Hannah Fletcher
Accessibility
Space inside the darkroom is limited and the table we will be working from is at a high level. Please contact us if you are a wheelchair user and would like to discuss adjustments that can be made.
Folding stools will be available.
All Tate Modern entrances are step-free. You can enter via the Turbine Hall and into the Natalie Bell Building on Holland Street, or into the Blavatnik Building on Sumner Street. There are lifts to every floor of the Blavatnik and Natalie Bell Buildings. Alternatively you can take the stairs.
- Fully accessible toilets are located on every floor on the concourses
- A quiet room is available to use in the Natalie Bell Building on Level 4
- Ear defenders can be borrowed from the Ticket desks
To help plan your visit to Tate Modern, have a look at our visual story. It includes photographs and information about what you can expect from a visit to the gallery.
For more information before your visit:
- Email hello@tate.org.uk
- Call +44 (0)20 7887 8888 (daily 10.00–17.00)
