Dark-Room Still Life

A table of objects, then a tray of water · Eli Haber

Two rooms, one course

Still life at Lens Room is not a styling workshop that ends on a screen. You build an arrangement at the north window — fruit, glass, cloth, sometimes the camera itself as an object — and you photograph it. Then you choose a frame and take it into the dark room.

Eli meters the window before anyone moves a bowl. The class talks about edges and weight on the table, not about collecting props. Digital sketches are allowed if they help you decide; the print is the thing we look at together.

The dark room is a classroom. You enter with the group and an instructor. Gloves are on the shelf. The room is ventilated. Trays are labeled for the sequence we use here. We teach that sequence as workshop practice in this building. We do not grant a handling license, and we do not call this a government qualification.

Still-life table with camera, fruit, and ceramic bowl Darkroom trays under safelight
Object study with film canisters, a key, and a glass bottle

The six sessions

  1. The empty table — cloth, one fruit, one vessel. How the window walks across the wood.
  2. Adding a camera as an object — metal, glass, leather, without turning the picture into an advertisement.
  3. First dark-room evening — gloves, ventilation, tray order, washing a print so it can leave the building.
  4. A denser arrangement — more objects, slower looking, a contact sheet or work print for the table.
  5. A second print from a chosen negative or file — small changes in time and burning, still inside our materials list.
  6. A quiet look at the prints you made — what holds as an object photograph, what was only a test.

If a session is in the dark room, the street door may wait a few minutes if you ring during trays. Call 03-544-8090 and someone will come out.

Instructor and materials

Eli Haber

Eli Haber keeps the language practical: what we pour, how long it stays, how we wash, where used solutions go in this school. He will not invent a certificate. If your workplace needs a formal qualification, that training is elsewhere.

Paper and the school’s print materials are included for class sessions. You bring a camera. Closed shoes in the dark room. Tie long hair. Tell the desk about skin conditions before the first tray evening so we can plan.

Hands lifting a washed black-and-white print from a water tray

Ask for a place

October 2026 desk: Sun–Thu 09:00–18:00, Fri 09:00–13:00, Saturday closed. Form method is GET; action is thanks.html.

Ben Yehuda 142, Tel Aviv-Yafo · desk@lensroom.pro

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