Richmond High class focuses on dying art: The printed photo

At at time when most photos are buried in cellphone cameras orforgotten computer files, John Ohlmann hopes to teach his studentsthe value of something tangible and lasting.

"It's an artifact," he says of a printed photo. "There's a thingto touch, and it's a permanent thing."

Ohlmann teaches five periods of a black-and-white photographycourse at Richmond High School, with 180 students making their waythrough the course each year.

On a typical Thursday during fourth period, Ohlmann's studentsbuzz around the classroom in orchestrated chaos. Some squint atstrips of film hung to dry from a laundry line with wooden clothespins, searching for their latest work. Others keep time, obliviousto the chemical stink, while their film soaks in a bath of water and"fixer." They rush in and out of the dark room where they crouchover enlargers illuminated by the soft orange glow of a "safe light"that won't damage photos.

Most of this generation doesn't remember life before theInternet. But they are fascinated with how a manual Canon from the'80s or an early 1900s Brownie functions, and what kind of photo itmight produce when they point it at their young niece, the crackedpavement, the statue of the Virgin Mary.

"I didn't know how to take pictures when I started. Now I reallylike using the manual cameras and the light meters," senior ShannonColbert said. "Before, I mostly used digital cameras and everythingwas done for me. It's really different using these."

Ohlmann provides the cameras, film and development materials hisstudents require, as well as a set of skills rarely taught anymoreyet necessary to produce the shots they want. He assigns themcertain subjects or techniques, like a photo that combines twonegatives. Colbert recalls being sent out on a treasure huntassignment, where one of the required photos was "roadkill."

"It's kind of like a little adventure," she said, recalling howshe tracked down a dead raccoon. "I lost the film to that one, thankGod," she adds with a laugh.

A photographer friend once asked Ohlmann why he bothered to teachthis old-fashioned technology, when the rest of the photographyworld was going digital.

"Light is light. Lenses are lenses. Things like composition,texture, how to frame a shot are the same, whether it's digital orfilm," he explained. "They're learning skills they can use if theyget a job as a photographer."

More than that, Ohlmann said, his students are discovering thatthey're good at something that requires patience and technique.

"They're learning to craft something," he said. "I get kids thatare just so good, that have the eye, this innate talent. They oftendon't know that it's any good. They see they have this ability andit's a real boost."

Staff writer Shelly Meron covers education in West Contra Costa.Follow her at Twitter.com/shellymeron.