Start here
New to Darkrooms? This page is your map.
Welcome. I’m Marcel Borgstijn, photographer and writer behind Darkrooms.
The name comes from a simple idea. Every photograph is developed twice. Once in the mind, before the shutter clicks. Once after. The darkroom I write about is the one between your ears.
Darkrooms explores that space. How photographers see. How creativity works as a daily practice. And why the photography community matters more than any algorithm.
Since 2022 I have published over 260 essays, interviews and magazine issues here. That is a lot to wade through. So here are the best starting points, organised around the three questions this publication keeps returning to.
1. How do photographers actually see and think?
This is the cognitive side of creative vision. What happens in your head when you raise a camera? Why do two photographers standing in the same spot make completely different pictures?
Start with these:
Why walking transforms your photography > The essay readers share most. On movement, attention and why your best ideas arrive on foot.
Artist: The title you’re afraid to claim > On the word many photographers avoid, and why that hesitation says more about us than about our work.
Who really made this photo? > A closer look at intention, influence and authorship.
2. Photography as practice, not just technique
Cameras are easy. Showing up is hard. This pillar is about creativity as something you do, not something you wait for.
It builds on RBNXPLRNG, my random-route exploration project. You pick a starting point. The route picks itself. The photographs follow.
Start with these:
The benefits of photography ‘Self-Mentorship’ > How to become your own most useful critic, and what happened when a group of us tried it together.
RBNXPLRNG – The APP > The tool behind the project, free to use for your own random walks.
Constraints as cognitive tools > Why limitations produce better work than freedom does.
3. Community and curation
Algorithms optimise for attention. People curate for meaning. That difference is why Darkrooms champions the work of other photographers, week after week.
Start with these:
33 Photographers on Creativity – Read the outcomes of 33 interviews (and counting) with photographers about how they work.
Darkrooms Magazine, latest issue – The quarterly magazine, featuring portfolios and photographers worth your time.
What lands in your inbox
Essays on seeing, creativity and practice. The heart of Darkrooms.
Darkrooms Uncovered, in-depth interviews with photographers and visual artists.
Darkrooms Magazine, a quarterly showcase of portfolios.
Framed Echoes, visual photo essays. Fewer words, more looking.
Everything is free to read. No paywalls.
If you want to support this
Darkrooms takes real time to make. If the essays, interviews or magazine have given you something, a paid subscription helps keep all of it free for everyone. No exclusive content behind a wall. Just support for work you already value.
No pressure either way. I’m glad you’re here.
