This situation is full of negatives.
A struggling Brooklyn darkroom permanently shuttered its doors this week — but not before allegedly tossing its clients’ artwork out on the street in a free-for-all.
The Bushwick Community Darkroom callously dumped pink and maroon lockers filled with client’s belongings onto Himrod Street Monday, after announcing it could no longer afford rent, former members alleged.
One heartbroken member told The Post that they lost photograph paper and negatives that were stashed inside a bolted locker — but that the lock had been cut and their items were stolen either off the street or inside the darkroom.
“I was profoundly distraught and confused, and it made me feel betrayed,” the member, who asked to remain anonymous, said.
Members of the darkroom and film lab said the closure came without warning, and that they weren’t given any time to collect the items that they paid up to $300 per month to store at the facility.
The BCD posted an image to Instagram of the lock-less lockers on the curb and implored the public to: “Come & get em. If you wanna throw us a few bucks cool if not just take em.”
Others claimed similar losses on social media — which the BCD vehemently denied, even calling one of its accusers a “f–king c–t” for asking fellow members to check their belongings to see if they accidentally took home her artwork in the frenzy.
The BCD claimed that “vultures” had descended on the lockers in a now-deleted post, before reversing course to say that the lockers had been cleared before they were put out on the street.
The darkroom, which opened in 2011, had launched an online fundraiser earlier this month to raise “$39,000 to reinstate BCD’s lease” — a financial burden that owner Lucia Rollow could no longer cover.
The effort collected over $9,000 in donations, a total that organizers deemed this week would not be enough to save the darkroom.
Rollow did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
It’s not the first time the BCD was embroiled in drama — Rollow was forced to pay out $50,000 in 2022 to settle a lawsuit with a former volunteer who accused her of running a “for-profit photography center” that “never paid him anything for the vast majority of his work.”
That former volunteer has since opened their own darkroom in Bed-Stuy.
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