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the last word
The Death
of the
Developer
— Anything which
combines passion,
know-how and a hint of
nostalgia is sure to warrant
our attention. And the
following most certainly
does. Huddled in the
backyard of a charming
house on Ixelles’ Rue de la
Concorde, we’ve dug out
what is probably the last
of a dying breed: a colour
transparency laboratory.
The Word meets founder
Georges Coppers and gets
an unexpected lesson in
chemistry…
Writer Nicholas Lewis
96 — THE THIRD WORD
In its heyday, from 1998 to 2002, American
Colours Laboratory used to process an average
of 18 m 2 of fi lm per day! Fast forward
eight years, and the studio is happy when it
gets a couple of fi lms to process, let alone
18 m 2 worth. Whilst at the time the studio’s
order books were kept full by its more than
60 daily clients, these can now be counted
on the fi ngers of one hand, testament to a
world gone digital. (Tellingly, the studio
had fi ve full-time employees as late as 2004
but the team is now down to Georges and the
youngest of his two sons, Christopher)
Georges Coppers, a former US Navy and
fashion photographer, came to Belgium in
the early 1970s with his then-girlfriend after
having spent the better part of the last
10 years travelling back-and-forth between
New York, Greece and Brussels (Paris was
actually supposed to be his last stop but
boarding the wrong train at the station sent
him on his way to Brussels).
Upon arriving in town, a chance encounter
with photographer Roger Asselberghs resulted
in both of them opening a studio specialised
in colour transparency photography.
Capitalising on his training as a mechanical
engineer in the Navy, whilst at the same
time drawing on his experience as a fashion
photographer, the idea of opening a photography
studio seemed obvious to Georges:
“The Navy defi nitely opened my eyes to the
future of photography” he now says.
“We rented the house in which the studio
is still located for 3,000 Belgian Francs at the
time” Georges tells us. He now owns the entire
property, a magnifi cent art-deco inspired
house in the heart of the capital’s Louise area
which would today probably go for millions.
From the outset, he was keen to instil a
certain American way to treating photography,
evident both in the hangers he had
specially-made and imported from New
York or in his near-overzealous attention
to detail. Georges was also determined to
make the lab one of the fi rst to be entirely
eco-friendly: chemicals are, rather painstakingly,
recycled onsite and the nitrogen
used for agitating these chemicals is also
made on site. At one point, Georges even
offered nearby schools the possibility of
recycling their chemicals, instead of them
being thrown down the sewers.
The early days, however, weren’t as easy as
one might think, as Georges is quick to point
out: “I was going back to New York at least
twice a year, as the city had a lot of work for
a fashion photographer and the studio was
still picking up”. His two sons used to help
out over summer in the studio and work surely
started picking up, soon making his frequent
cross-Atlantic trips unnecessary…
“We were developing and making duplicates
for a wealth of clients, from artists
and museums to advertising agencies and
libraries” says Georges. Indeed, when The
Word was visiting the studio, we were shown
an amazing collection of proofs, from old
Mr Propre and Volkswagen adverts to archives
of artists Marin Kasimir and Marcel
Broodthaers to name but a few…
And the celebrity tales don't end there.
The studio has seen everyone from Michael
Jackson to David Bowie pass throught its
machines. "Michael Jackson's photographers
come in the day after a concert to ask for his
pictures to be pushed up a notch even though
they were perfectly fi ne" says Georges. "Bowie
also came in personally one day to check
his previous night's concert pictures" he goes
on; reminiscing how nice the singer was.
" Every new digital camera
which comes onto the
market results in less
clients likely to come
through the lab’s door "
Nowadays, the story is entirely different,
with the studio barely surviving. Although
it still has enough clients - mainly photography
students, other photography labs outsourcing
their transparencies and duplicates
and some museums and galleries keen to archive
their collections - to keep the place going,
“every new digital camera which comes
onto the market” as Georges observes “results
in less clients likely to come through
the lab’s doors”.
Rather admirably though, he is realistic
in his assessment of the studio’s near-demise,
even going as far as praising the benefi
ts of digital photography: “ it is the future
of photography” he tells us.
Although we would never question his
years of experience, we cannot help but
hope he’s wrong… just this one time.
American Color Laboratory
Rue de la Concorde Straat 31
1050 Brussels