If you’re a millennial like me, you may have gone to at least one public school-sponsored book fair. That brief break from class (often the highlight of the day) let us browse new books and flip through Scholastic’s latest bestsellers. And if this sounds familiar, chances are you also remember the most disturbing title of the bunch: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.
A book so controversial that it had a movement of parents and schools trying to ban it.
While the main feature- the old folklore stories- were definitely creepy, it was the accompanying illustrations that made the book actually scary. Stephen Gammell’s abstract and chaotic illustration style left many young kids shaken and riddled with nightmares.
One look at the cover tells you exactly what’s in store: a decomposing head shaped like a tree, sprouting from the center of a graveyard. Not exactly light-hearted reading for middle schoolers.
However, Gammell’s Illustrative work for the series wasn’t only terrifying, but also mesmerizing. His style has remained as a personal favorite, and is still an influence for me years later.
The project idea
Recently, I came across an old copy of Scary Stories and thought it might be a fun project to try recreating the vibe of the book’s illustrations with photos and darkroom prints. Maybe even create a small zine that pays homage to the book as a way to share a few of my favorites.
Before getting started, I first took some time to really look at Gammell’s style, trying to dissect what makes it so horrifying. I came away with a few thoughts; his illustrations feel very visceral not only because of the subject matter, but from his use of sporadic line work, and it’s raw, high contrast palette.
I knew going in, there would be some major limitations to replicating the feel of his images. His drawings were done using charcoal, pen, and pencil- so, a very different artistic medium than photography.
Shooting the rolls
The game plan was as follows- shoot a few rolls of black and white film, pushed at least two stops to increase the contrast and grain. Then create a set of negative masks that I could use as textures to overlay and stack on top of other frames in the enlarger. And finally, when making the prints in the darkroom, experiment with different ways of applying the developer on the print to try and achieve the ink-splatters and extended linework of his illustrations.
To achieve the look I was after, I reached for Fomapan 400, because if there’s one thing Foma films have, it’s grain and contrast– especially when you start pushing the ISO. If I really wanted to go bananas, I would also use either a Hoya R25A red filter or a Hoya R72 Infrared filter. For any images that needed an abstracted look, I used the Lensbaby selective focus lens to drag and smear the bokeh throughout the frame.
Creating the negative masks
While multiple exposures seemed like a good fit for a project like this, instead of creating multiple exposures in camera, I shot a set of separate negative masks that I could use to stack in the enlarger. This would give me flexibility to swap out different frames of masks with different shots to see what worked best together.
I created these frames by backlighting glass (using both a dry pane of glass and a water-filled transparent container) with black India ink to create random marks, splatters, and patterns to photograph. I would try things like sponges, tape, paper towels, and really anything I thought might separate the ink in an interesting way. In addition to photographing the ink drops in the water-filled container, I would also drip rubbing alcohol on top of the floating ink globs to disperse them further.
Developing Holga (Foma) 400 at 1600
To develop the rolls, I used Kodak’s D76 (stock dilution), Photographer’s Formulary TF-5 fixer, and Kodak Photoflo as a wetting agent1. The process looks like this:
- Pre-soak in water for 1 minute at 20°C
- Develop for 20 minutes at 68°F/ 20°C (30-second initial spin-rod agitation, with 10 seconds of agitation each minute)
- Running water stop for 2 minutes
- Fix film for 5 minutes (spin rod agitation every 30 seconds)
- Running water rinse for 8 minutes (refresh/ empty tank each minute while water is still flowing)
- Replace wash water with 1 tank of distilled water and Photoflo for 1 minute (15-second agitation, then let soak for the remainder of 45 seconds)
- Hang dry
Side note: This is a little random, but I want to mention just how much of an absolute pain it is to retrieve the film from a rewound roll of Holga 35mm film. Unlike the standard Foma, Ilford, or Kodak metal canisters, these things are plastic. My trusty film can opener doesn’t work on them, and I’m stuck splitting it open like a clamshell in the dark. After this less than pleasant experience, I started opening the back of my F100 early while it’s rewinding to try and catch the leader before it gets pulled all the way in.
Darkroom time!
With all of my rolls of film developed, it was time to go make a mess. Literally.
First, I would find the correct exposure times for whatever image I was working with. Then I made a succession of prints using different things to “paint” the developer on specific areas. It went something like this; experiment with different applicators, then try something different, repeat.
Eventually I found what I thought was a winning combo; I’d start by soaking some cheesecloth in developer and placing it on the center area of the paper, lifting and dragging it in haphazard ways. I would then use a sponge to lightly ‘blot out’ the edges from the saturated area. Finally, I’d use a rigger line brush to pull the pool of developer toward the edges and create long extended lines similar to the ink trails in Gammell’s illustrations
To semi-contain the mess, I set a stainless steel cookie rack on top of the developer tray. The great thing about using the cookie rack is that any run-off drops right back in the tray.
It’s also worth mentioning that while any paint brush will work, watercolor brushes specifically are a better choice when applying developer to the print because the bristles are designed to hold more liquid and have better overall flow.
The Hail Mary
One of the aspects I that love about Gammell’s work is the absurdity of some of his illustrations. Proportions are all out of whack, things don’t make sense, and there’s a general sense of what the hell am I looking at?
With this in mind, I thought it might be fun to try and cut up a few of the negatives, joining pieces together to make a collage. The result was an extremely distorted and jarring composition, but, because of the different exposures of each negative it was a bit difficult to print. Anyone watching me attempt to juggle the three custom dodging masks when trying to print the collage would have had a nice laugh.
Creating a mini-zine
The goal of this whole project was to take my favorite darkroom prints of the bunch and create a mini-zine that imitates the layout of the first Scary Stories book.
In photoshop, I designed the front and rear covers to match the original layout, including hand-editing Garamond text to match the book’s custom font. I used a single 8.5×11 sheet of printer paper and divided it into 8 sections, making one slice in the two center horizontal cells. Doing this allows it to fold into a booklet format. Here’s a downloadable template I made if you want to use it for your own zine.
After getting the template all set, I combined my front and back mock covers with the selected prints. Staying true to the original layout of Scary Stories, I named each image as if it were representing a tale in the book. I chose mysterious and dramatic titles like “The Eye Witness” and “A Terrible Night to Behold”. Are these names a bit cheesy? Maybe. But I think they fall right in line with the folklore and short story titles recounted in the book.
Once the design was finished, I printed it out and started folding!
It’s worth mentioning- if you’re printing this out at home, odds are that your printer will not print all the way to the edges (aka full bleed). So, after printing, you’ll want to trim the edges before folding. Otherwise, you’ll have cells that are not properly in line with your design.
And something else to consider is the unseen portion of the folded pages. Since I used a black border, I also flipped the printed sheet over and printed a plain black section on the back side before folding. This way, there weren’t any blaring strips of white showing. If you have white borders, though, it’s probably not an issue.
What I would do different
At the end of any project, I always like to review how the results compare to the initial goal. And looking back, I think I can see what worked trying to replicate Gammell’s style in the darkroom, and what techniques might be better used elsewhere.
For example- I think the negative mask stacking gave a neat effect to the prints, but I feel like I achieved better results reproducing his tense lines and splattered washes by painting the developer directly on the paper. And maybe I could have used some effects filters to distort the images or leaned into the abstractness and use of negative space a bit more.
Here’s the caveat, though- the Scary Stories books are a series. A wonderfully horrific trilogy that can easily set me up to shoot for a sequel (or two!) So, maybe… to be continued?
- I also have a post where do a deep dive on Fomapan (Holga) 35mm film after shooting twenty rolls at different ratings and comparing the results. ↩︎