Fifteen years ago (?!) I worked processing film at a high end NYC black and white boutique film lab. This picture reminds me of how I started pretty much every day of work. I would typically process a couple of hundred rolls of 120 and 220 a day, and maybe 30 or 40 rolls of 35mm. The regular developer for most film was D-76, in five gallon stainless steel tubs.
I'd start out by organizing the film from various clients into batches that could be run at the same times, and group everything according to development times. Each roll got an ID sticker that was placed on the end of the roll in the light, moved onto the leader in the dark, and ideally held under the clip of the steel reel. They almost always stayed there until the film was dry and cut; sometimes a sticker would come off and I'd have to figure out which roll it was.
Each roll was loaded by hand and dropped 18 rolls at a time into a wire basket that was run by hand through the developer in open tanks in absolute darkness. I would often load up three baskets at a time and run them so that as soon as the first basket came out of the dev the next one went in, and so on, so that when the third basket was finishing in the fixer I could turn on the light and take the first basket out of the second wash and put it into the wetting agent, dump the water and move the second basket into the final wash tub, dump the water from the first wash and load the third basket into the first wash, then go hang the first basket. Once the film from the third basket was hanging, I'd start again on the next batch. Repeat; all day, everyday, five days a week- for a year. I basically spent that year in the dark. Occasionally there wasn't enough film that needed processing and I got to print, but those days were rare indeed. Anyway- thanks for the memories, and good luck knocking out your backlog!
