ONE SHOT: INCHINDOWN ~ FEATURE-LENGTH DOCUMENTARY
One Shot: Inchindown is a documentary following photographers Simon Riddell and David Allen during a darkroom photography project in the Inchindown WWII oil storage facility in the Scottish Highlands. This underground storage facility comprises six fuel storage tanks and two access tunnels. When the facility was built in 1938 it was the largest underground man-built structure. And, to this day, the first tank holds the record for the longest reverberation in any manmade structure. Each tank measures 237 meters long, 9 meters wide, and 13.5 meters high.
Simon and Dave use a large format camera (4”x5”) to make a single negative of one of the six tanks. Their concept was to take a single photo, process it, and print it on location. This involved turning one of the access tunnels into what may be the world’s largest darkroom, and using the same camera used to create the negative as an enlarger. This was made possible by Intrepid Camera Co., who provided their first production enlarging back for the project.
It also involved the two photographers sleeping in the tunnels overnight until they could come out with a 120cm gelatin silver fibre print. Tired, overcoming obstacle after obstacle, in a less-than-ideal location for darkroom printing, Simon and Dave manage to pull off whet they set out to do… even if it meant being covered head-to-toe in oil.
One Shot: Inchindown features a music score by Inchindown local Lucie Treacher, as well as sound effects captured on-location by musician-architects Mathias and Sophia.