Downtown Camera Ltd.

It’s time for an ALL NEW series! Today we enter the colourful world of whose stunning use of trichromatic photography is exactly the kind of unique work we love to see in this series! 🎨
Hi! My name is Rob Graham, and I am happy to be here! I’ve lived in Toronto since I came to University back in 2001 (originally from Nova Scotia!) and I never left. Film photography and glassblowing are my favourite things to do when I have some time to spare. I’m very interested in abstract/minimalist photography, as well as trichrome photography to make colour photographs.

I started film photography in 2005 when I received my mother’s Olympus OM-1(n) SLR. I still have that camera today; recently I was shooting it in Europe, and it still works just like new. It’s hard to believe I’ve been buying film from Downtown Camera for more than 20 years! In 2006, I took some classes in film development and darkroom printing at Hart House at the University of Toronto, and once I printed my first photograph, I knew I was hooked for good! My background is in chemistry, and I love thinking about what the different molecules in the developer and fix are doing in the film to the little silver halide grains, and for a while I mixed my own developers. I try to share my passion for film photography with anyone I can, and I’ve taught dozens of people how to develop and print their own photographs.

Even after all of these years, being in a dark room for hours at a time while printing photographs is just about the most relaxing and therapeutic thing I can do. I do all of my own B&W developing which is very calming. When I go into the darkroom and the red light is on, I just know I’m in photography mode, and at least for me, my body breathes a little sigh of relief.