For my last six months in Tasmania, I decided to go out in style and use some of my savings to buy a van and turn it into a mobile darkroom, something I’d been wanting to do for years but kept hesitating when it came time to actually pull several thousand bucks out of my savings.

Having kept an eye on Marketplace for a while, I knew the seller’s $3200 asking price was reasonable, despite its 30+ year age, 435,000 kilometers, and overall average looks. It’d had the top end replaced and an Engine Watchdog fitted at 400k (which was good since the temp gauge on the dash didn’t work) and had generally been mechanically looked after. 

My aim was to get the fitout done as quickly and cheaply as I could, since my remaining time was limited and I was loathe to invest a lot into something I’d be getting rid of in a few months. At the time, there was only like 1 other active wet plater in Tasmania that I knew of, so it wasn’t like there was another photographer who’d want it for the same purpose. 

For the most part it was made from recycled or repurposed materials from other projects.

The mismatched timber here is from a few different things, mostly the slats from our old bed. I didn’t really even bother measuring much of this, just did a rough test fit and cut it to line up with what seemed most comfortable. You would not find a right angle anywhere in this thing, but it worked fine. I had picked up a few of those sets of A4 plastic file drawers you can see on the righthand side of the last photo; once you melt off the little tabs off that keep them from coming out easily, they make great trays for 8x10s, and are handy to have in a darkroom with little space. 

The “sink” is an old commercial baking tray I picked up on Marketplace for $20 or so. I used a step bit to cut a hole in the corner, then fit it with a drain from Bunnings, which pipes the wastewater into the jerrycan you can see below in these pictures (the big blue funnel was just a test fit). 

A few other things added to the work area: 

• A work surface that drops down to use as a “dry side” when you’re pouring collodion or loading the plate holder (it’s secured to the side of the van with a pair of rare earth magnets when it’s in the “up” position)
• Safelight: made out of aluminium U-channel, red LED strip, and a piece of frosted acrylic I had cut to size.
• Whiteboard for recording exposure information
• Added support for a 10L jerrycan for water, and an area to put collodion, developer, etc (made from offcuts)
• Mini bungees to keep silver bath firmly in place while driving
• It’s not in any pictures, but I picked up one of those ergonomic kneeling stools to sit on. I removed the castors and racked it to the lowest setting and it was just short enough for me to use without scraping my head on the roof. 

For lightproofing, I still had the big piece of blackout fabric for the incomplete darkbox that I’d messed up the cut for. The big tear in the middle is where the safelight was meant to stick through, which I patched with another piece of blackout fabric and copious amounts of tape. The top was tucked handily into the one of the removable ribs that run across the van’s ceiling, and sides were also taped shut. This obviously blocked the view out the back, so I fitted a reverse camera to help with parking. 

I wanted to still be able to get natural light in the back when I wanted to, so I opted for a double curtain on the side window rather than blacking it out entirely. I epoxied some magnets to van, and taped others to the curtains to help them snap into place. There’s a smaller curtain that covers the window, and another big one that goes all the way down to the floor with a bit of slack to spare so that it “pools” in the footwell and blocks the light coming up from the bottom of the door. I just used tape and binder clips for the hem rather than sewing. 

I was having a hard time with getting the curtains on the back fully lightproof, so in exasperation I used a bunch of alu foil as a temporary fix. I decided to keep it as it makes it look less like a van carrying a bunch of photo gear and more like a crazy person is living out of it, which is less likely to attract potential thieves. You can see the reverse camera in this shot; I removed the broken windshield wiper fluid squirter and enlarged the hole a bit with the step bit to accommodate it. 

Speaking of living in it, the van did come with a (pretty well made) bed frame that spanned the whole back.  I removed the big piece of plywood that the mattress rested on and repurposed the supports to make a single bunk out of this piece of laminated particleboard I picked up for free on Marketplace and cut down to fit. It also made a handy bench for people to sit on behind me if they were keen to watch the development process. Not pictured, but I cut down the frame for the abandoned darkbox and used it to make a box that slid out the bottom, which I put a gas cooker and some food in. 

Using the darkroom felt not unlike being in a submarine.

It was a pretty enjoyable vehicle to drive - the long throws on the shifter and tall seating position made the little kid in me feel like I was driving a much bigger vehicle. The lack of power steering made it a somewhat less enjoyable proposition to park in the city, but out on country roads it felt right at home. 

In the end, I got 5,000 trouble-free kilometers out of it, and sold it for more or less what I originally paid a few weeks before I moved after pulling out the darkroom fitout. I did have to replace the windscreen to the tune of around AU$400 and top it up occasionally, but all in all it was a great vehicle and I hope to own another one someday!