When I finished my bachelor’s in photography, I did what most feared doing, I took a little break from my practice. I still took photos for fun, mostly on film due to the love I had gained for analogue throughout the degree, but unfortunately it was becoming increasingly more expensive to process film. Boots were slowly closing their labs and Jessops prices rose (and every time I went in, the staff seemed to get ruder?). When I decided to properly get back into my practice, I was apprehensive over the costs. I could process my film at home but even that sounded pricey.

As well as developing a love of analogue throughout my time at university, I had also tried to support my peers by buying their work at any given opportunity. One piece I had won in a silent auction was a view of the streets of Paris by my friend Laurie. She had developed the image in caffenol, a process I had never heard of before. After stumbling across the image whilst going through my things, I was reminded of the process with a short, handwritten note on the back of the image. I looked it up. It was a home made developer using instant coffee, coda crystals and vitamin c powder. Seemed easy enough and cheap to-boot; so I gathered the supplies and got practicing. This has been my go developer ever since. I put the kettle on, mix up the ingredients for the film and mix up a hot chocolate for me. I adore the dirty-grainy-contrast it gives to film. If you are looking for a clean and soft developer, this is not it.

Many of you may not know this about me but I take a very, very slap-dash approach to developing. I figure out my measurements and the timings ish and don’t check water temperatures. For the most part, it has gone fine. Cut to a few weeks ago in the university darkroom. They have temperature controlled everything. So, I figured I would try to do things properly this time. I had fresh ingredients and two films to develop and print from so got to work. Sometimes my films come out a little under or a little over developed but nothing majorly wrong, but these were the first films in years that have come out really poorly. They were majorly underdeveloped. I had done everything by the book, even adjusted times after I saw the first had come out wrong and still ended up with a struggle!!

Was it the water temperature? Was it the film? To be honest, I’m pretty sure it was the coffee. In Sweden I had gotten used to developing using Nescafe (this was the one consistent brand I found as instant coffee is quite uncommon there). This time I bought a Waitrose own brand. I have heard the cheaper the coffee, the better, and this was the cheapest I could find somehow?! But not sure if I will be using this again!

Anyway, I went to the darkroom and tried to salvage some prints. They came out extremely dark. The lighter they were, the flatter the image. Even bumping up the contrast did very little. But I quite liked them. Even if you could barely make out the image in light that was too bright.

Due to my slap dash approach and faith in reusing fixer that I thought would be good for another round of film, I have unsurprisingly had many mishaps. One of the first film’s I royally messed up was a roll of film from a trip to Paris and then a roll of film from a trip to Edinburgh. These however, have produced some of my favourite images.

Prior to my life taking a distinctly photographic route, I was planning to attend university to attend a degree in fine art. I loved painting, abstract expressionism and Robert Rauschenberg. An interest in chance, mark making, movement and a focus on process, in hindsight, stems from here and my a-level days in the art studios.

Although I have had many a caffenol catastrophes, I have also learnt to accept and embrace the results or fall out of these events. There is such a human element added to images when we see marks of the process. The materiality of the negatives and the physicality and indexicality of the image making process are clues to the imperfect person that was there, be it in the bathroom, the kitchen or the darkroom, to mess it all up.

Caffenol Catastrophes