drkrm began in Los Angeles as a dedicated black-and-white lab, focused on the meticulous craft of silver-gelatin printing—an art nearly lost in today’s digital age. Founded by John Matkowsky, who trained under master printer Tom Consilvio, the lab quickly gained a reputation for museum-quality processing and printing. Over the past three decades, Matkowsky has worked with some of the most respected names in photography, including Phil Stern, Garry Winogrand, Horace Bristol, William Claxton, Edward S. Curtis, Jo Ann Callis, Catherine Opie, and the Los Angeles Public Library’s Ansel Adams Collection.

As its reputation grew, drkrm evolved into a gallery space—championing photojournalism, fine art photography, experimental techniques, and overlooked corners of visual culture. Exhibitions ranged from vintage vernacular work to contemporary explorations of identity, politics, and subculture.



Throughout its ten-plus years of exhibitions, drkrm became known for curating powerful and provocative shows—never shying away from difficult or underrepresented subjects. Many of the shows have been raw, haunting, or emotionally charged. Others have unearthed forgotten moments in cultural history or introduced voices long overlooked by the mainstream art world.

The gallery has shown early and underappreciated works by renowned photographers and helped launch emerging talent. Highlights include:
– Anthony Friedkin’s early documentation of Southern California surf culture
– Ryan Herz’s unsettling portrait series *The Children of Edgewood*
–  Scot Sothern’s brutally candid street series "Lowlife", later published in the UK by Stanley Barker and hailed by the *British Journal of Photography* as “the year’s most controversial photobook”

drkrm has also showcased work by Jack Laxer, Joseph Rodriguez, Travis Shinn, Paul Zone, Don Jim, Jeff Seltzer, Kelsey Bennett, and more. It hosted the first public exhibition of photographs by artist Gronk and the West Coast premiere of Chicago photojournalist Art Shay. Many works first seen at drkrm have gone on to be featured in major institutions such as LACMA, MOCA, the de Young Museum, and the Leslie-Lohman Museum.

drkrm pushes the edges of what we’ve known and seen before, and in the process not only finds other veins of significance in well-known photographers, but also give voices to those less established or connected but wholly relevant. Photographers showcased have included Jack Laxer and his mid-century architecture 3D work, Joseph Rodriguez, Philip Fagan, Rock-music photographer Travis Shinn, Paul Zone, Don Jim, Jeff Seltzer and Kelsey Bennett.

drkrm exhibited the first public presentation of never-before-seen photographs by the internationally renowned painter, printmaker, muralist and performance artist Gronk, as well as the West Coast premiere of legendary Chicago-based photojournalist, Art Shay.

Thematic shows have spanned from Beefcake Babylon and Found: Mid-Century Vernacular Nudes to Haunted Hacienda, a deep dive into Mexican horror cinema. Other exhibitions have explored ghosts, queer history, prostitution, early L.A. punk, the Poe adaptations of Roger Corman, and cult director Donald Cammell. In a feature by JUXTAPOZ Magazine, Matkowsky was described as a “visionary” for this fearless programming.

Drkrm was also the first commercial gallery in Los Angeles to exhibit cell phone photography.

In 2014, the de Young Museum presented Anthony Friedkin’s Gay: A Photographic Essay, first shown at drkrm in 2009. That same year, Frank Melleno’s Fairoaks Baths series was exhibited at the Leslie-Lohman Museum and now in the collection of the Getty and Paul Zone’s Playground—based partly on his 2008 drkrm show—was published and exhibited internationally.

Today, drkrm editions continues this work by producing high-quality, limited-edition photobooks, monographs, and art catalogs—focused on the classic, the subversive, the esoteric, and the socially relevant. Select publications are accompanied by pop-up exhibitions and public programs.

info@drkrm.com

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