Some things that happen in the dark should stay in the darkRoom!
Here is the first photograph I ever shot and developed in a darkroom. It actually was a decent photo for a first-time, novice photographer but you'll just have to take my word for it.
In 1979 I was studying photography at the Pittsburgh Art Institute. Earlier that day our class was sent around the city of Pittsburgh for a few hours to shoot pictures, process the film, and produce an image in the darkroom.
I went back and successfully (but not easily) developed the film negative in the metal canister. It was honestly exciting to see the images on the negative even if they were in reverse black and white. Then, I put the negative in the Omega enlarger and projected the image onto the photographic paper. Light, paper, chemicals all work together to create an image.
Maybe in 1820 Joseph Nicéphore Niépce was as excited when he saw the first photographic image slowly appear in the developer tray, but I doubt it. When it hit the developer tray an image slowly appeared like magic. In less than a minute the photograph I had shot just two hours earlier appeared.
Fixing is Fundamental
I was so amazed that I immediately broke (and then learned) the first rule of darkroom development. I took the photo outside to show my buddy the amazing photo. Naturally within seconds I was holding a black piece of paper. My teacher walked over, looked at me and said, "Not bad, but next time make sure you finish the last two steps. We covered that in Chapter 1."
That lesson explained how a black and white photo needs to hit three trays of chemicals to be considered complete. The last tray contains ammonium thiosulfate (fixer) that removes the unexposed silver halide. Or, to put it this way, it keeps the photo from turning black when it hits the light.
A journey of a thousand photos begins with doing it wrong so you learn to do it right. A good lesson about how we see the light, so to speak.
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