Chapter 3

Andrew hurried back to Tony.

“I think you may have been burgled, the darkroom is a mess.”

Tony, who had been moaning to himself half the morning, groaned aloud.

“No, there was no burglary.”

He stopped and looked at Andrew, thinking about what to say.

“I hold a camera club meeting in the studio on a Friday night. Once the session was over we started drinking, but I vaguely remember a couple of guys wanting to develop some film. I was too drunk to realise it would be pointless and a waste.”

He shook his head.

“Tidy up in there for me please and let me know how much stuff was wasted or is useless. I will get the money back off the pair of them.”

Andrew nodded.

“You have a studio? I didn’t know.”

“No reason why you would. It is the door at the back of the stockroom. But that is not the main way into the studio. It is accessed from the courtyard behind the house. I rent it out to photographers to use during the day. I only go in at the end of the session and make sure nothing is missing or broken.”

“Cool. One day when it is empty would you show me please? I have never seen the inside of a studio before.”

“It is not being used on Monday morning. Remind me when you get here and I will show you around. No blabbing about it. Savvy?”

“Eh, sure.”

Andrew wasn’t sure why Tony was concerned about him blabbing but agreed reflexively. Heading back into the darkroom the first hour was spent cleaning up the mess. There were chemicals everywhere, it looked like whoever had been in the darkroom had developed some film but they had obviously taken the negatives with them as there was nothing hanging up beside the three that Andrew had done the previous day. Near the end of the hour Andrew discovered that the negatives had not been removed. They were still on the reel in the drum. He stood for several moments thinking about the situation. He had no idea what stage the development was at, and he doubted that the participants from the previous evening had any idea either. There had been traces of developer and fixer in the sink so he assumed that they had been developed properly just not retrieved for drying. He popped the outer lid and when he emptied the drum into the sink it was water. He retrieved the negatives, dried them and hung them to dry with those from the previous day. Finally he was ready to start.

“It looks like two bottles of each of the chemicals. It was more mess than waste.”

Tony nodded.

“Thanks, I will get the money back off them in two weeks. Mind the shop for me for five minutes.”

Although there were three customers in the shop they were browsing and by the time the first was ready to make a purchase Tony was back. He made Andrew watch him ring up the sale on the till so that Andrew could cover for him. The rest of the morning Andrew developed more film, rather than make prints. Other than loading the reels with the unexposed film and making sure it was light tight in the drum this part of the process could be done in the light. Once Andrew started making prints then it would be much more difficult, and wasteful, for him to leave the darkroom.

“Keep developing negatives this morning and then after lunch you can start making the prints. I should be sorted by then.”

Tony was the boss and Andrew did as he was told. He covered for Tony twice as he went upstairs and even recorded his first sale, although it was only a small box of film, hardly earth-shattering. Finally after lunch he locked the darkroom door, turned on the dim red light and set to work making prints. Making prints was an exercise in patience, lots of steps repeated, and the need to be careful with the chemicals. He did the three rolls of negatives from the previous day and, after they had dried, had the packet of prints and the negatives, carefully sheathed, ready for the customers. He had all the equipment out and so on the spur of the moment he printed out the roll of film he had retrieved and finished from the night before. At first, he didn’t even look at the prints, he was focused on the time per stage and just getting through them all but suddenly he looked at one of the prints. Rather than some holiday snap or pictures of a family, he was staring at a topless woman. He concentrated enough that he got the roll finished but when he hung the prints up to dry he could see they were a series of shots where the model undressed down to her knickers. Andrew started to realise why someone had tried to develop these on their own the night before. Cleaning everything up he finally opened the door and went to see Tony, blinking as his eyes adjusted to natural light again.

“I have completed the three films from yesterday. Two are in their packets ready for pick-up and the third will be ready Monday morning, it just needs another hour or so to dry.”

Tony nodded.

“Erm, when I was cleaning up I found that there was a roll of film in the drum. He or they forgot it last night. It had been developed so I hung it up this morning. The negatives were dry enough this afternoon that I printed them out for your friend since I had all the stuff out.”

Tony looked at Andrew closely.

“Did you look at the prints?”

Andrew nodded.

“Normally I am just looking to make sure that I have exposed them correctly, not really caring about the subjects. But yes, this set did catch my eye.”

Tony laughed.

“I’ll bet they did. So what do you think?”

“About what?”

“About what was on the roll of film?”

“I don’t know what you mean? Sorry if I am being dense.”

“What do you think about women?”

Andrew stopped.

“Er, I don’t think about women. I am 12 remember, women are shop assistants, librarians, teachers.”

Tony was failing to hide a smile.

“What do you think about younger women, girls?”

“I try to ignore them. My sister is 10 and she and her friends are just annoying. A couple of my friends have older sisters but they ignore us. The look at us as if we are something stuck to the bottom of their shoe. That’s if they acknowledge us at all. So annoying or dismissive.”

“I forget that you are 12. Oh well, you have lots to look forward to. Anyway, back to these prints. You know The Sun has a topless woman on page 3 every day?”

Andrew nodded.

“A lot of photographers want to photograph women the same way. That is what most of the guys who book the studio are doing. Working with a model, normally clothed but sometimes not. That is also why I stock so much developing supplies. They can hardly drop off a roll of film like that at Boots, can they?”

Andrew thought about it. He could imagine collecting prints like these at Boots would be interesting, potentially embarrassing.

“Anyway, thanks for doing these. I will keep them for Angus until the next meeting.”

He passed Andrew another fiver.

“10.00 on Monday, see you then.”

As Andrew stood waiting on his bus he thought about the last week. Just the previous weekend he had been visiting all the independent camera shops in Edinburgh trying to get a part-time or summer job. How things had changed in a week. Before he got carried away he thought about the previous Saturday. It was all but certain that if Tony had not bust his ankle and was hobbling around on crutches then he would have got the same answer as the previous seven stores that day. But he had shown Tony that he was not an idiot and he had £10 in his pocket to show for it. From chatting to guys at school, and in the neighbourhood, he knew that summer jobs didn’t pay much, 30p to 50p an hour normally. That he was getting at the top end of that range was good plus he had received a bit of a bonus as well.

Sitting in his room later he thought about the coming week, the rest of the summer, and this new sense of drive since his birthday. His parents had been vaguely interested in what he had been up to, but there was no obvious attitude of questioning whether he should be working so much, or even at all. For once their passive parenting suited him. Working at the shop that week had been playing catch-up for Tony. His limited mobility and inability to stand for any length of time meant that there was lots to do. But even in the 20 hours he had worked that week Andrew had helped sort a lot of things out. If he worked Monday to Saturday all day that would be 48 hours of work. Thinking back to the shop Andrew was suddenly unsure if there was enough work to keep him busy.

He had done good work in the darkroom but there was not an endless amount of films waiting to be developed. There was a bit of a backlog but he would get caught up within a couple of weeks. Most people had switched from black and white film, the kind he was developing, to using colour film. Andrew himself shot three times as much in colour as in black and white. From reading photography magazines he knew that colour film developing was difficult, complicated and required some kind of large machine. There were very few discussions or descriptions of the chemistry of colour developing. Andrew’s excitement at potentially making £200 over the summer was squashed flat as he realised that there was not nearly enough work to keep him there that long. He hoped to get some work, but it seemed unlikely to be the whole summer.

Andrew had kept at his exercises all week but it was started to be a struggle. Other than cycling with the other kids in the neighbourhood he previously had done no exercise. Push-ups were still a struggle, he was stuck at a mighty three, and sit-ups were not much better. But he persisted, knowing that he had to expect gradual improvement.

His interactions with his parents were both the same as usual yet he was seeing them in a different light. He had dinner with his parents, was polite and pleasant, but felt detached from the scene. All three of them, his parents or Rowan, said or did things that four weeks earlier would have led him to saying something and voices would have been raised. But now instead of reacting to the comments, he rather tuned them out, watched and listened rather than engaging. He was helpful round the house, did his chores without having to be reminded, often without even having to be prompted at all.