Obscura Darkroom NJ is a community darkroom located at Project for Empty Space in downtown Newark. It offers classes for teens and adults, open darkroom hours, memberships, and a gallery space centering on photography.
The new endeavor is a collaboration between Obscura Darkroom founder Jen Zehner and Director Luisa F. Pinzon-Romero.
Obscura Darkroom NJ is seeking to provide a space where photographers, artists, students, and the local community can create and interpret their world through photography.
Obscura Darkroom NJ is made possible through the generous support of Project for Empty Space, LPvision Services, the City of Newark’s Creative Catalyst Fund, and the Newark Arts ArtStart Grant.
For more information, contact us at Obscuradarkroomnj@gmail.com
About the Directors
Colombian-born photographer and Curator, Luisa Fernanda Pinzon-Romero, migrated to the United States at age 10. At the age of 18, her photojournalism career began when she decided to move to La Paz Bolivia where she was given the opportunity to become a staff photographer for The Bolivian Times. After 2 years, she returned to the United States, where Pinzon continued her studies and work in Photography.
Luisa Fernanda Pinzon-Romero is a community organizer, curator, and educator. She has collaborated with the Newark Arts Council, Newark School of the Arts, Arts Unbound, and numerous galleries. Pinzon is a small business owner and the driving force behind lens-based initiatives LFPVision Art Services most recently Obscura Darkroom.
Pinzon’s goal is to provide and share the beauty and importance of photography as an artistic medium. While discovering new ways of using photography as well as other mediums to tell a story of the world around us.
“In 1977, I took a high-school class in black and white darkroom techniques and turned my love of movies and magazines into a new hobby of photography. I purchased my first 35mm camera with Green Stamps and photographed my classmates to develop my eye. After high school, I took a job as sales manager for Fotomat and worked part time as a photographer for Sears Portrait Studios. I attended Union County College in Cranford, New Jersey, majoring in Communications with a focus on Marketing and Advertising.
In 1983, I attended the Center for Media Arts, Germain School of Photography, where I studied Commercial Photography learning all aspects of still life, portraiture and color darkroom printing. In 1986, I partnered with location designer Crystal Glass and opened the first of two studios, Images Through Glass, a studio of photography and fashion design, and later Image Markers, where I began shooting fashion and portrait photography.
I became involved in 2000 with the Newark Arts Council through forums to develop live-and-work studio coops in the Newark area and two years later agreed to do photography for the Newark Arts Councils’ first Open Doors Newark Artist Studio Tour and have done so for the last 10 years.
I have been a photo documentarian for many artistic events throughout the city. I connected with local artists and became interested in their Newark Artists Collective.” - Stafford Woods