A couple of unrelated things for you;
1) The World’s Oldest Darkroom?
Apparently, when Joseph Fortuné Petiot-Groffier (known as one of the pioneers of photography) died in 1855 - his darkroom in Chalon-sur-Saône in Burgundy was simply abandoned and the door closed. His heirs and successors never did anything with that part of the house and just left it locked up. Upon the death of the last of his family two years ago it was eventually found that the whole darkroom was still fully intact - complete with bottles of chemicals, apparatus and everything a photographer in 1855 needed.
( Article from the muse-ings blog.)
2) The Power of Context
An interesting article at Gallery Hopper on something that troubles me, namely whether to allow the viewer to use the context they bring with them to form an opinion on a photograph, or to give them a push in the direction you want them to take.
I’d urge you to view the photograph before reading any of the text, and ask yourself these questions;
“Take a look at this portrait by Timothy Archibald and imagine what sort of man this is. What is the photographer saying about him? What is he trying to say about himself? What does he do for a living? Why is he holding that gun?”