Chattanooga’s Thriving Photography Community With Tori Fyfe

Tori Fyfe, the owner of Safelight District, discusses how the local photography community has bounced back and grown despite COVID-19.

Black and White photos by Adam Reynolds

The art communities of the world have been rocked by this pandemic. Chattanooga has been no exception and we have seen huge changes come to all parts of the art community. The local photography scene was not spared from this, but it has managed to continue to document our streets during this time. Tori Fyfe has seen this first hand.

Tori is the owner of Safelight District, Chattanooga’s Community Darkroom. This company provides a unique service for local photographers and has had a huge impact on the community. Tori says that Safelight has managed to continue to supply these services for local photographers and has seen a huge rebound in the photography community.

“The amount of film being dropped off is insane,” Tori shared. “If anything, we’ve been busier!”

Safelight is even starting to reconnect with local businesses and partner with other organizations. In October they began doing shows at Barley and they were on the Uncle Jonesy’s Cameras Podcast. Most excitingly, they will be starting to do monthly workshops.

“Kevin Lane will be teaching along with myself,” Tori said about the workshops.

These workshops will cover a wide array of skills that local photographers may be interested in. Tori recommends that new photographers start by learning about black and white film development and then go into color development. This can then lead to classes on film printing and advanced camera skills.

Make sure to visit Safelight District online to learn more about these and other projects and give Tori a follow on Instagram to see her own photography.