This post is part of a larger series on how I designed my photography zine, in somewhat agonizing detail. Take a look at the other posts in this series:

• Part I of VI: Forming the Project
• Part II of VI: Early Design Concepts
• Part III of VI: The Design Dirty Work
• Part IV of VI: Editing the Zine
• Part V of VI: Producing the Zine
• Part VI of VI: How to Photograph a Laundromat & Other Thoughts

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How to Photograph a Laundromat

Or, more precisely, this is how I photograph a laundromat – from start to finish. For those familiar with film photography, most of this advice is repeated all over the internet. After photographing so many laundromats, my process converged here:

Mental Preparation

Admittedly, I’m a shy photographer. I’m insecure about my skills with a camera. I also fear being chastised for photographing certain things, making people uncomfortable, or unintentionally doing something against the law for the sake of a photo.

Photographing laundromats was my attempt at a little DIY exposure therapy to help overcome some of these fears. It helped me to have a few tactics before starting:

• I tried to imagine my own thoughts and reactions if I saw someone else doing what I planned to do. (e.g. if I saw someone else taking photos while I was at the laundromat, what thoughts would go through my head?) I realized I wouldn’t pay much attention to them; and most people would likely react that way towards me.
• I had some responses ready if someone did ask what I was doing. The few times others asked what I was doing, I replied with a simple, “Well, I have to do laundry, and I enjoy taking pictures. I’m stuck here for the next hour, so I figured I’d do something I enjoy.”
• If an owner/employee was present at a laundromat I went to, I always asked if taking photographs was okay. I emphasized that I was a hobby photographer taking photographs for personal use, and my goal wasn’t to take photos of other people.
• Most importantly, I regularly tried to get to the laundromat as early as I could to avoid sharing the space with too many people.

Tools and Logistics

Obviously I didn’t come into the laundromat with my shutter release blazing. My best photos come from places I have familiarity with or where I’ve had a chance to digest my surroundings. To start my mornings, I always drug everything into the laundromat and started my laundry before taking a few minutes to sit down and survey the space for shots that may be interesting.

My tools almost always included:

• Minolta X-370 film camera
• Minolta MD 50mm f/1.7 lens
• Kentmere 400 35mm black & white film, approximately one roll per laundromat

The ambient light inside each laundromat was the biggest influence on how I took photos. It dictated whether I shot my roll of film at the “box speed” (400 ISO), or if I had to trick my camera into underexposing (shoot at 800 ISO) or overexposing (shoot at 200 ISO) the film so I could compensate later during developing. It also influenced my aperture setting and the resulting depth of field I could expect in my photos. These are all regular challenges film photographers face, however. (Other people explain the exposure triangle better than I can.)

Because the lighting situation in most laundromats was fairly straightforward, I also relied on my camera’s Aperture Priority mode to automatically set the shutter speed based on the ISO and aperture settings I manually set.

When photographing, I focused on unique features of each laundromat. I tried to bracket shots (shoot several similar frames) of scenes I was particularly excited about. I also kept the height of my camera in mind to avoid taking all my photographs from my standing height. I took advice from the 2002 Lil’ John song to “Get Low” by kneeling, sitting, and occasionally laying on the floor to get a shot. Alternatively, I also stood on benches to gain height when I felt comfortable doing so and wasn’t afraid I would break something.

How I Developed the Film

There are approximately 1,000,000 tutorials online for developing film, so I will only outline the process below. Developing black & white film is as much an art as it is a science given the number of variables you have control over. The generally accepted method of developing film loosely follows:

1. Develop: Add preferred film developer to a loaded development tank and agitate per the developer’s instructions; usually that’s continuously for a minute, and then 10 seconds of agitation for every minute of development. (Usually 8-11 minutes.) Pour out developer.
2. Stop: Pour stop bath or run water into development tank for 1 minute.
3. Fix: Pour fixer into development tank and agitate per the fixer’s instructions; usually 10 seconds of agitation for every minute of fixing.
4. Final Rinse: Rinse the film in running water for several minutes to remove any residual film chemicals.
5. Photo Flo (optional): Dip developed reel of film into properly diluted Kodak Photo Flo for 30 seconds to speed film’s drying time and reduce the chance of water marks.
6. Dry: Hang the film to dry.

I often choose to develop my film the ‘wrong’ way using a technique called stand developing or semi-stand developing. My preferred method includes:

1. Mix Developer: Add 0.84 mL of Kodak HC-110 for each 100 mL water needed to develop the number of reels in the loaded developing tank. (I typically use 6.4 mL of HC-110 into 750 mL tap water to develop two rolls of 35 mm film in a standard 2-reel Patterson tank.)
2. Agitate & Set: Pour properly diluted HC-110 into developing tank and invert tank exactly two times. Set and timer and leave tank set for 30 minutes.
3. Repeat previous step, resulting in four total inversions and an hour of developing time.
4. Stop & Fix: Stop and fix film following the conventional steps 2-6 from above.

Following developing, I scan my film using an Epson V600 scanner and edit my photos in Adobe Lightroom.

And, eventually, I shot and developed enough passable photos to make a zine!

Other Resources

I discovered a few cool tools and resources throughout the process of creating my zine. Here are a few things I found to be extra cool:

1. Google Keep
2. Calligraphr
3. Google Fonts downloads
4. “Law & Ethics in Street Photography” by Sean Tucker
5. Dr. Agar’s Videos on YouTube
6. Inkscape
7. Affinity Publisher (and other products)