One of my very good friends is a photographer and occasionally he asks me to help him work in the darkroom, mostly just mixing chemicals and such. I remember the first time I went down there with him to develop some shots he’d taken of a guy he was seeing at the time (the entire idea of him taking these pictures post-coitus is just so erotic in and of itself). We closed the door, set up, and then he flipped the switch.

I can’t really explain how I felt beyond the fact that I was overwhelmed by the way everything looked. There was something so crisp and yet so raw about it. We were this bare, grainy matter and our motions seemed gorgeously fluid in this light. I really am not giving the way everything looked justice at all. It was like another state of matter entirely. I decided right then and there that I would one day have to do something absolutely filthy in a darkroom. 

And then I saw the darkroom scene in Vicky Cristina Barcelona with my girl Penelope and I was sold. This just needs to happen.