Below are some of the ephemera from his darkroom, including pages from his 'Darkroom Notebooks,' a series of binders Yang used to organize articles and his own notes detailing his investigations on chemistry, papers, lenses, cameras, etc. Throughout his career, Yang methodically documented his own darkroom workflow in order to refine his technique. His earlier prints were silver gelatin (D.O.P.), but in the 1990's he started investigating alternative processes and taught himself the use of platinum, palladium, ziatype, and printing out paper (P.O.P.).
There he was taught the rudiments of view camera work, and Ansel Adams' Zone System. As a young man in 1951, he traveled cross-country to take Minor White's summer class at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. John Yang did all his own printing and had a lifelong interest in photo chemistry and darkroom technique.
