West Valley College’s photo department donated thousands of dollars worth of photography-related equipment to the school’s photography program. The equipment donated includes 15 enlargers, used cameras with film, and a large amount of darkroom equipment, including a year’s supply of photography chemicals.

The materials were procured from West Valley College by Digital Photography teacher Leslie Louden, who also teaches at West Valley College. Through Louden’s connection to the head of West Valley College’s photography department Brian Tramontana, the school received the materials once West Valley College decided to close down its darkroom and donate its supplies.

The Photography Department is hoping to add more space to the darkroom to have 15 enlargers for students to use—increasing darkroom capacity over the 11 currently available for students to use. This means that in an average class of 30 students, half the class will be able to use the darkroom at any one time.

“[The extra enlargers will be] great because one of the problems is [that] we’re limited on space in the darkroom,” Photography teacher Jessica Hayes said. “We’re getting a lot of chemicals donated, which is wonderful because chemicals are really expensive for darkroom photography. We’ll probably have about a year, year-and-a-half supply of photo chemicals from the donation.”

By the end of May, the department should have all the donated materials at the school. The enlargers and equipment will be set up and should be ready for students to use by the beginning of next year.

“I’m recruiting students right now because I am probably going to be going over there on the [May 14], and picking up and packing up a lot of the supplies,” Hayes said. “We’re gonna need help moving a lot of the [enlargers] just because it’s heavy and big, so we’re hoping to get some assistance moving that.”