Photolab moved to west Berkeley in 1991 and the Photolab Gallery was born. Since then we have exhibited over 120 photographers, each for 5 to 6 weeks. Many of these photographers have gone on to professional representation, to publish books or to continue exhibiting. The exhibits reveal the depth of variation in the world of photography, from stereo photography, pinhole photography, traditional color photography, traditional and modern black and white silver photography and now digital photography.

Exhibitors get a steady stream of viewers from Photolab customers. The Gallery has a mailing list of over 1200 subscribers who get announcement cards for each show. Located in the growing West Berkeley Arts District, the Photolab Gallery has two gallery neighbors, Barbara Anderson Framing and Gallery, and the Lightroom Gallery - all three just steps from each other. Local media reviews, and press releases draw more visitors and collectors.

If you would like to receive email or regular mail announcements click here. For more information about the Gallery or to request a portfolio review and the Gallery prospectus, click here.

Each exhibit has its own web page with links to other web properties. All exhibit web pages are located in the Photolab Gallery Exhibit Archive.

Photolab started out in the 1970s as a rental darkroom space located on Alcatraz Avenue in South Berkeley near the border with Oakland. Black and white photography was making a come back and the business grew in response to the demand for services.

Current owner, Andrea McLaughlin purchased the business in a leveraged buyout from John Clements and Karen Kerschen in 1981, after Andrea successfully managed the company for about a year.

Photolab started out as a strictly black and white lab that specialized in fine art and commercial lab services for professionals and advanced hobbyists. At first, Andrea continued her work as one the the early documentary style wedding photographers in the Bay Area. But soon Photolab began to grow and attract other wedding photographers who were also shooting in black and white.

Photolab developed a niche market combining fine art sensibilities, commercial photo lab equipment and detail oriented customer service. This special combination drew the attention of wedding and portrait photographers and other fine art photographers, including Andre Kertez.

In 1989 we (which actually means, Photolab owner, Andrea McLaughlin) started studying Photoshop at PhotoMetro, in San Francisco. That was back when Photoshop had no version number and there was no really good way to get images out of the computer! Andrea still has her first print made on a computer with Photoshop 1.0.

In 1991 Photolab moved into a new facility that is now its current location on 5th Street, in West Berkeley.

Andrea bought her first custom made computer for Photolab in 1993. It was a PC with 64 MB of RAM. At the time we were told that there was absolutely no reason to put that vast amount of RAM into a computer. Andrea remembers with delight telling the Silicon Valley computer tech who was shocked that we would install so much RAM,  "Just wait and see...you have no idea what's coming!"