The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám

I looked in vain for a copy of Edward FitzGerald's translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Kháyyám (Persian: رباعیات عمر خیام) from Dodge Publishing in 1905 with photogravure illustrations by Adelaide Hanscom. Biblio.com, my great source for used books, showed only the later copies with colored (halftone?) illustrations.

On the off chance they were misunderstood by the sellers, I ordered two copies dated 1905 described as having black and white illustrations from Amazon. The first arrived, I glanced at it briefly - it was the later 1908 version with weak halftone reproductions. In the meantime I managed to buy many of the tissue photogravures that were separated from the book off a kindly seller on Ebay. 

Another week went by and the second copy from an Amazon seller arrived. I ripped open the package to find the book as described - spine detached, book split in half, pages loose, less than fair condition. 

With the tissue photogravures undamaged and intact. 

As I showed my wife the difference between the exquisite original photogravures that are the basis for Adelaide Hanscom's reputation and the later weak halftone reproductions of the (very slightly larger) other copy, I turned a page and surprisingly found one tissue photogravure (shown above) stuck in its proper place next to its corresponding halftone. Sublimely beautiful in contrast to the ordinary illustrations it accompanied. It had a price of $3.00 marked in pencil in the upper right corner.

I've read that FitzGerald's translation may have been a bit more creative than simply converting Persian to English. That said, some of his translation remains known today and is quoted still:

The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

Hanscom used her San Francisco Bay Area friends, including the poets George Sterling and Joaquin Miller, as actors in her constructed scenes. After taking the photograph, Hanscom would rework the glass negative painting in details, backdrops, effects. She had a strong singular vision of pictorial photography heavily influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement.

I find the images quietly exciting. Fresh. I was filled with delight on turning the pages more than one hundred years after they were printed, marveling at the delicacy and sensuality of her photographs and treatments.

The first of several tragedies struck Hanscom when the negatives used for the groundbreaking illustrations in this book were destroyed along with her studio in the fires following the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. 

I am sitting here in Jamaica writing this. Relaxing. Musing on the turns of life and the beauty to be found. Red Stripe beer at ready, Clive is setting up for the Rum Punch Party to be enjoyed shortly. Hummingbirds have gotten used to me sitting here writing. Taking a break before the new child arrives in July. My wife must be here somewhere. Enjoying the pool, the broken sunlight.

I first found the reference to Adelaide Hanscom, her work, and this book on the most excellent site Photogravure.com. Seeing the images online is a pale experience to seeing the delicate tissue gravures in person.  That said, I attach more of Hanscom's illustrations at the bottom of this note. Additional images can be found on Photogravure.com. Read the text while viewing the images.

I hope you get the chance to see some of these original photogravures someday. So much is lost. So much remains to be created.

Sonnets from the Portuguese

I went up to the Antiquarian Book Fair in San Francisco this past weekend. There were many bookstores selling their wares ranging from illuminated manuscripts to 8" x 10" glossies of Bettie Page ($500, signed - thanks, I already have one). I was looking for examples of photogravures in books. I stopped at several booths, and spent about three hours walking around. Pretty much for nought. Too many books to open, too many booths, too little time.

On returning home, I went to my faithful resource Biblio.com and tracked down a copy of Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, with 20 tipped in photogravures by the pictorialist Adelaide Hanscom (Leeson). The sonnets were written immediately prior to her marriage to Browning, the most famous being Sonnet 43.

I have been tracking down and acquiring original vintage examples of dust grain photogravures being guided primarily by a list to be found at the truly wonderful site The Art of the Photogravure. They have good reproductions of significant photogravures from the early 1900's, but the images on the web pale in comparison to the originals.

Adelaide Hanscom began significant contributions to pictorial photography with the illustrations she produced for The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Her images are heavily manipulated (starting with glass plate negatives) to achieve a painterly style - this same approach was used for the Sonnets from the Portuguese. Many of the images do not look photographic. The Rubaiyat is perhaps the first book to show a photograph of the male nude. One of several tragedies in her life struck in 1906 when the San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fires destroyed her studio and all the negatives for the Rubaiyat.

Hanscom combined multiple negatives and drew in backgrounds and borders to achieve her artistic effects. The border designs reflect the aesthetics of the Arts and Crafts Movement at that time. The images for the sonnets were taken over the years from 1903 to 1915. Several of the images were made in Danville, California where she taught drawing in the high school. The house she lived in while there still stood as of 2003.

Tragedy began stalking her at a quicker pace. Her husband was killed at Verdun in 1916. Her father Meldon died after a brief illness in 1919.

In 1921, she spent all year in the Agnews State Mental Hospital in San Jose, California.

In the morning after my order for the sonnets, I got an e-mail from Ian Kahn, owner of Lux Mentis book store saying he was at the fair in San Francisco and I could pick up the book that day if I liked. I liked, and drove up 101 to San Francisco for a second time in as many days. A surprise at leaving, I spied a single volume of Curtis's epic work The North American Indian at the booth across from Lux Mentis. At $30,000 I very carefully, simply and only viewed the exquisite photogravures.

The pages of the Sonnets from the Portuguese are heavy and rough edged requiring turning each one by one, the tipped in gravures are sumptuous. The printing is sensual matching the sonnets. I spent a rainy day reading the book and viewing the images.

Adelaide Hanscom died in 1931, struck by a car as she stepped off a trolley in Pasadena, California and was all but forgotten.

"Well played!" whispered Monica.

I have been acquisitive of books on photography from the late 1800's and early 1900's for a few reasons. First and foremost is to get original source material on photographic printing processes that were not yet considered historical at the time. Second, I've been looking for images of vintage equipment and advertisements for use in this blog. Third, I've been looking for fine examples of photogravures and some books from this period have exquisite examples. 

One such find was The Artistic Side of Photography: In Theory and Practice by A. J. Anderson, a fundamental statement on pictorial photography published in 1910 with hand pulled gravures whose production was overseen by Alvin Langdon Coburn.

I curled up the other night reading it and relishing the gravures. The book's curious structure is one of presenting the material on pictorial photography then recapping the points in analogy with a third person (besides the reader and the author) named Monica. I wanted to share one brief dialogue (with two gravures from the book), which as I read the passage was left wondering if photography was a metaphor for something else.

LEAF FROM MY NOTE-BOOK

The Pianola versus Billiards

"They say," said Monica sadly, "that artistic photography is like playing the pianola; and I don't like the pianola, Mr. Anderson."

"They do say it. I have heard even Evans say it; but it isn't true." The girl's face brightened.

"If I had to make a print from a negative taken by someone else, and my work consisted only in softening some parts and emphasizing others, then I should be like a pianola player. Pictorial photography is like billiards."

"Go on! Please go on!" urged Monica.

"One has to calculate the angles at which the light rebounds from an object, just as one has to calculate the angles at billiards; one has to calculate the rebound from soft and coloured objects, just as one has to calculate the absorption of energy and alteration of angle in the rebound from a soft cushion; one has to get the exact strength in both exposure and development, just as one has to get the exact strength in a billiard stroke; and one has to play for the break. A break commencing with exposure and ending with a perfect print from an enlarged negative is no small break, and each step must lead up to the next."

"Well played!" whispered Monica.

"All this time the hand is governed by the eye and brain, just as in billiards; but herein lies the difference: in making a billiard break, two players aim at exactly the same result - an addition to the score; whilst in photography each artist aims at something entirely original. Good average pictorial photographers are about as common as good average billiard players; but taking everything into consideration, is it strange that absolutely first-class men are rare?"

"No, indeed." said Monica.

"As rare as a Roberts or a Stevenson?"

Mike John Ware

Dr. Mike John Ware is an accomplished British photographer and rigorous chemist. An Oxford University doctorate in chemistry, his research focused on molecular spectroscopy. Mike has undertaken fundamental studies in historic photographic processes and preservation of photographs working with The National Museum of Photography, Film and Television and The Victoria & Albert Museum. Mike brings to bear hard science on alternative processes, providing refreshingly authoritative original material to a landscape littered perhaps to often of incorrect information passed from one historic text to the next. He has written three books that are in-depth modern classics of alternative photographic processes. 

The first, which is perhaps the bible of cyanotypes today, is Cyanotype: The history, science and art of photographic printing in Prussian Blue. Describing its history, practice and variations Mike presents his New Cyanotype Process which is a modern revision of one of the oldest methods of reproducing a photographic image to paper.

The second and third books form a pair, and are still in print, covering the use of gold in photography, and the chrysotype or gold print. Gold in Photography: The History and Art of Chrysotype is the first published history of gold in the arts and photography. It is a very good read on the use of gold in art, its manifestations and it many uses in photography and a history of the attempts at creating a practical method of printing in gold going back to Herschel. Mike perfected a practical method of gold printing he calls the chrysotype, a process by which a wide range of tones can be achieved. Ironically, the only tone that can not be achieved in the chrysotype is that of gold itself. Mike delves into areas of chemistry and materials, including nanoparticle theory unknown to Herschel, to finally explain the appearance of gold prints and to solve the puzzle of creating a practical method. This ability to convert pure science into practical methods of photography is one of Mike's strengths. The second book in the pair is The Chrysotype Manual: The Science and Practice of Photographic Printing in Gold which presents instruction for the advanced alternative process photographer on how to create chrysotypes using Mike's new method. 

Mike Ware's web site is a trove of information on the iron-based alternative photographic, or siderotype, processes. There is a detailed article on the re-invention of the chrysotype process.

Alternative photography process books are typically done in small printings, destined most often to never see a second edition. The Cyanotype book is only available used and fetches a premium. The chrysotype books are still available on Siderotype.com and can be paid for by Paypal.

I am not one to give out advice in strict ways, but these books on chrysotypes are a gold mine of information on the iron-based processes in general, and will occupy a place of honor in your collection. Don't complain to me when they go out of print. You have been warned.

Mike Ware's photography can be found in his online galleries.

The Cyanotype Process

I stumbled across a printout of a chapter on cyanotypes from Christopher James's most excellent book, and I had quite forgotten where I had found it. It turns out the cyanotype process is the sample chapter from his book published  on his website.

This is quite a find, it is full of valuable information on the process, alternate techniques, and toning approaches.

I had forgotten the quote from the naturalist photographer Peter Henry Emerson that is related in James's chapter, "... no one but a vandal would print a landscape in red, or in cyanotype."

The Bromoil Reading Room

A very brief note. I saw a reference, I think in Volume 7 of The World Journal of Post-Factory Photography, to a Bromoil Reading Room. I've been scanning the web with various searches to find on-line versions of out-of-print texts on alternative processes. The bromoilists are very organized in getting material on-line.

Another place to find some photography is on Archive.org, which has listings from texts scanned from American and Canadian libraries, besides others.

Happy reading!

A Treatise on Photogravure

The Internet is a wonderful place. Really.

I am carrying around on my vacation a 1974 reprint by the Visual Studies Workshop of Herbert Denison's A Treatise on Photogravure (in Intaglio by the Talbot-Klič Process). It is available used at a price of $275 (for the reprint) at Amazon.com today, which may put it out of many people's reach.

For whatever reason, this book is one of many scanned by Microsoft as part of an effort to put out-of-copyright works on the web for wider access. A full color PDF version of this black and white treatise is available, and other formats are available also, in a scan from the University of Toronto. It was the 32nd hit on Google.com that yielded a launch page on Archive.org to find a scanned version of the text. I keep forgetting to search there first - they have several other early texts on photography.

A brief biography of Jon Goodman mentions that he carried this slender 140 page reprint around with him during his early studies of photogravure in Europe (though it incorrectly lists the first publication date as 1865 - some thirteen years before Klič perfected the method). 

The book presents a complete description of the steps of process in the table of contents:

1. Introductory
2. The Negative
3. The Transparency
4. The Gelatine Resist
5. The Copper Plate
6. The Ground
7. Mounting and Developing the Resist
8. The Mordant
9. Etching the Image
10. Photogravure in Line
11. Printing from the Plate
12. Afterwork on the Plate
13. Steel-facing the Plate
14. Historical Notes

The text assumes hands on knowledge of traditional silver photography and darkroom work, and perhaps a working knowledge of carbon printing methods. I do find it amusing that these older texts have sections titled Historical Notes. The facsimile edition reprints the 1895 version - some 55 years after the invention of photography. Also, as others have noted, steel-facing is a misnomer, the copper plates once etched are iron-coated electrolytically. There are some modern references I'll dig up to non-toxic (less toxic) approaches to copper plate photogravure - do poke around a bit to find those.

So if you were looking for something to read as you entered the New Year, this is my recommendation.

Printing the Crown Point Press Way

I've come down with something and am mostly staying warm and catching up on reading.

Jon Lybrook mentioned in passing that Crown Point Press was having a sale, and that he really loved their books. I have to say, if it wasn't for Jon's whole-hearted recommendation I would, as a rule, pass up books whose titles start with Magical Secrets About... I went to the web site and on his recommendation bought the three book set. In for a penny, in for a pound. Had I not bought the books, I would have been the poorer for it.

In my search for texts on polymer photogravure I have cast far and wide. There are a few texts on copper plate photogravure of note which I may speak of in the future. But I noticed in my searches that there were some texts for etching that were very relevant in describing technique that could be applied to photogravure.

Magical Secrets about Line Etching and Engraving: The Step-by-Step Art of Incised Lines, by Catherine Brooks is perhaps the most relevant of the three to photogravure. As of today it is on sale from their web site for $46.80 - and it's a steal for that price. The hidden gem inside, that immediately distracted me from Brooks's excellent text up front, is the appendix by Kathan Brown describing the Crown Point Press Way of Printing. Brown, the founder of Crown Point Press in 1962, expounds the view that the artist expresses themselves in the plate, while the printer is responsible for printing the plate consistently. This philosophy is well-matched to photogravure where the making of the plate is the fundamental expression of the image.

That said, I have repeatedly read that the inking of the plate itself is a craft, and it is here where Brown's appendix really gets going. Brown crisply and practically describes how to do that in a repeatable, straightforward fashion.

But that's not all folks, if you order today - oh, sorry, was getting carried away.

Tucked into the front cover of the book is a DVD that includes a 46 minute video of Brown demonstrating the techniques described in the appendix. What an eye opener it is. I have to say, I had no idea what it was supposed to look like when you wiped a plate. Brown demonstrates wiping a copper plate - I have no idea what the practical difference is when wiping a polymer plate. That said, I've paused making my (hopefully last) calibration plate as I review the video and re-read the appendix to try her inking and wiping method. The Magical Secrets web site has additional tips and information.

I bought barrier cream to keep the ink from under my nails (and promises softer hands to boot) and chalk dust for that final hand wipe as Brown suggests. I have a hot plate to warm my Toyobo KM73 plate when inking. I'm poised to try this method.

A hand wiped plate is considered to be the apogee of the printer's art, and involves leaving plate tone (tone in the highlights) that is removed during other wiping approaches. Lybrook I believe mentions that some of the pigments in inks should be considered toxic, so hand wiping the Crown Point Press way is not without its challenge.

In for a penny, in for a pound as I often say.

Annals of My Glass House

Julia Margaret Cameron is a hero of mine. She is an inspiration to follow one's passion no matter when in life you find it, to find supporters for one's endeavors, and to make progress in the pursuit of art through determination and hard work.

The Internet is a great resource for photography and opens up many early sources if you know to look for them. One interesting find is the brief unpublished record of Cameron's first ten years in photography - Annals of My Glass House. She is disarming in her practical approach to setting up a workspace for her new hobby:

I turned my coal-house into my dark room, and a glazed fowl-house I had given to my children became my glass house! The hens were liberated, I hope and believe not eaten. The profit of my boys upon new laid eggs was stopped, and all hands and hearts sympathized in my new labour, since the society of hens and chickens was soon changed for that of poets, prophets, painters and lovely maidens, who all in turn have immortalized the humble little farm erection.

The "glass house" is of course the natural light studio in which Cameron created many of her images. Her nonchalant brush off in her brief memoir of the rejection of her work by some conservative bodies then governing photography and instead focusing on her achievements and progress is refreshing. 

She seems to have two major subjects for her photography, constructed scenes such as Whisper of the Muse, and intensely psychological portraits. Her portrait of John Herschel is powerful, immediate, and piercing in its gaze on her mentor and friend. Her unconventional focus technique, her closeness - bordering on intrusiveness - to her subjects, and her unwavering vision make her portrait work speak more to our sensibilities today than to her near contemporaries who quickly forgot her.

Cameron emerged from obscurity in the 20th century, and her work can be seen in many collections.

The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes

While Arentz's work is phenomenal in its focus on Platinum and Palladium Printing, on the other end of the spectrum is a compendium covering many alternative processes. Perhaps the most comprehensive recent text is Christopher James's satisfying The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes.

Christopher James seems to be a throwback to the early, heady days of the practioner/technician/instructor. His book goes between the history, the art and the making of images by a wide variety of processes much as texts published by Scovill and others did at the turn of the 19th century. The history that James has to draw on is quite a bit longer however.

I must confess that I am a devourer of history and the people that make it. Maybe it was in James's first edition that I came across the reference to Anna Atkins in the chapter on Cyanotypes. Regardless, James does the material to right by acknowledging the priority of Atkins's lovely work British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions.

Profusely illustrated, with many examples of work in the respective processes (which the reproductions suggest but in no way replace the need for you to see original images printed in the process to fully appreciate their beauty). 

James keeps the tone light and the pace snappy. The format is clear (identifying alternate methods, and the material needed listed up front followed by detailed if humorous instructions):

16 large eggs

...

Whip the egg whites into stiff peaks (like the top of a Starbuck's latte). If you are being true to this idea of tradition, you will be using a bundle of quills to whip the albumen. If you don't have time to pluck a goose, use an electric blender wand.

This reader will never be able to try all these processes - but I'm certainly going to have fun attempting to do so.

Platinum and Palladium Printing, Second Edition

Though someone may comment to tell me I am wrong, it is my feeling that while there are many good texts that describe a variety of alternative photographic printing methods, there are few texts that are comprehensive on one method. 

Leading the pack in the latter is Dick Arentz's Platinum and Palladium Printing, Second Edition. While the first edition was a very good text, the second edition is that rarity of where the improvements are welcome and justify purchasing that second edition even if you own the first.

What makes a great textbook on an alternative printing method? A much needed introductory chapter, that appears in the second edition, whose purpose is to get you to that first print. It may not be the best print you ever made, but it certainly simplifies the detailed discussion of the process once you make it from start to finish. Everything becomes very clear.

Another point that makes a textbook useful is that the material can be applied to related processes. The comprehensive chapter on paper, covering solutions to common problems associated with using a particular paper for platinum and palladium printing, surveying some major available papers, and describing their artistic properties is valuable for many other processes. The material on sensitometry is applicable to all photographic processes. Similarly the discussion on UV light sources, coating methods and equipment, appendix on digital negatives, and other material will prove valuable to all your alternative photographic endeavors!

Arentz writes in a crisp, no nonsense style with the rare humorous remark (maybe someday I should write a blog suggesting The Elements of Style by Strunk and White as an allegory for creating an image - Arentz's spare prose hearkens back to that practical guide).

I use Mark Nelson's Precision Digital Negative system to make the contact negatives needed for Palladium printing. I have settled on the Na2 method of contrast control. The paper I use for this process is Bergger COT 320 - expensive but beautiful, and great wet strength to make it through the clearing baths and archival wash.

I find myself going back to this book every few months, and leafing through the material. Something will make a bit more sense than it did when I started all this. A comment might clarify something I'd noticed.

The platinum and palladium process is not that difficult - and the results can be beautiful. Armed with this book, and Mark Nelson's method for creating digital negatives, the process can be simple and enjoyable!

The World Journal of Post-Factory Photography

In scrambling around for information on alternative and historic processes I've come across some material in a roundabout way. One extremely useful publication was The World Journal of Post-Factory Photography published by Judy Seigel. In her own inimitable style, Judy sets forth in 9 issues stories of practitioners, methods and how-to's for alternative photographic processes.

The issues are invaluable. With articles by some of the foremost practitioners of the day, responses in subsequent issues, discussions of different approaches to a problem - more informal than a textbook - more approachable than a few fragmentary notes on the web.

In the next couple days I'll be covering my experiences with the cyanotype process. It was this simplest of processes that led me to track down Judy via the Alt Photo mail list.

I am not sure if the nine published issues are still available? Issue One is on line (a large scanned download). I got my shrink wrapped (clear plastic - no hiding my passion) set of issues and curled up for hours.

Issue Five was a gold mine of information about the cyanotype process. Invented by Sir John Herschel (a famous polymath) in 1842 it is one of the first photographic processes invented. Anna Atkins produced the first photobook, on British Algae, in cyanotype. The issue profiles perhaps the leading modern practitioner of the cyanotype process, John Dugdale. 

The cyanotype process has one significant drawback for some people - it produces blue images (Prussian Blue to be precise). It was widely used as the blueprint process to copy design and architectural drawings. Dugdale's worked sparked my interest in this historic process - as he is able to transcend and express himself beautifully in blue.

More on the cyanotype process later.