Robert Goldkind waits on ABC No Rio’s new darkroom
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Robert Goldkind has spent years as a street photographer with nowhere to develop his film. He expects that to change soon when the Lower East Side collective ABC No Rio opens a darkroom in its new building.
Goldkind belongs to ABC No Rio’s Darkroom Collective, where he printed his silver gelatin work for years. The collective closed its old tenement at 156 Rivington Street in 2016, and the building was demolished the following year, scattering its programs to arts spaces around the city.
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Its darkroom, gallery and computer center have been unavailable since, the collective says, while it builds a replacement on the same lot. The $21 million building, funded by the city and designed by Paul A. Castrucci Architects, topped out in October 2025.
It is expected to open in fall 2026 with a community darkroom among its facilities. Goldkind said he will be printing there again.
He keeps no other studio. “As a street photographer, New York City is my studio and physical workspace,” Goldkind said, adding that he has never had one and never saw the need. His subject, he said, is the city itself and the ways people interact in it. A darkroom is another matter.
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