This blog has moved

Because of restrictions on content forcing required boring warning pages (interstitial), I have permanently relocated my blog to Alternative Impressions hosted on Wordpress.com.

While not as simple to use as Blogspot, I find the content policies and actions less objectionable. I have put my own warning page up on potential nude content in discussing photography at the front of my blog.

So far it's almost livable.

On Coating Methods

I've tried several methods of coating cyanotype and platinum/palladium sensitizers on paper. I primarily rod coat. Starting with a small line of emulsion (say 2ml or a bit less, or 3 single bulb pull dropperfuls) in a line on one end of the paper, I smoothly draw the line with s leading wet edge across the paper. I pick up the rod, skip over the line of sensitizer and push it back.

The rod float lightly on the surface of the paper. Several passes can be made over a sturdy paper like Bergger COT 320 with no buckling or abrasion (lifting up of the paper fibers). For a paper like Weston Diploma Parchment, the paper will start to buckle on the fourth pass when working quickly. I probably tend to make one or two too many passes with the rod on this paper. COT 320 is a easier experience.

Beth Moon does beautiful platinum and palladium work using Mike Ware's method. She makes prints as large as 16 inch by 20 inch. She surprised Mark Nelson and I when she said she rod coated even the large prints. I was always thinking I had to switch to a brush to coat the larger prints beyond say 11 inch by 14 inch.

Kim Weston taught me platinum/palladium printing with a rod and the ratio method, this was my first foray into alternative printing processes. Mark Nelson is uses a "magic brush" to brush coat his palladium prints. When I worked with him that first time he kep saying "magic brush" and I was getting worried about being alone with him in his house. He finally explained that this is the term used by platinum/palladium printers for the Richeson 9010 brush. Laying a similar amount of sensitizer as in rod coating - or perhaps a bit more - you pour the sensitizer from your shot glass used to mix it onto the paper and brush smoothly and rapidly to cover the area to print spreading the emulsion uniformly. It is with a brush that people go to the "artistic brush stroke" aesthetic of alternative printing. To show the hand coating of the paper. The "artistic" part takes some practice, as the result without forethought simply looks sloppy. There is one image that I routinely brush coat paper for to echo with the overbrushing strokes the lines in the image.

Take care to avoid getting emulsion into the metal part of the handle as it can contaminate your coating. Keep your brushes clean, rinse in distilled water, shake out firmly and hang to dry. Don't leave in a jar as this will eventually screw up your brush shape.

I've used Japanese Hake brushes with some success. They are gentle on the paper and the ones I have the bristles are sewn to the wooden handle so metal contamination is impossible.

There is not much artistry in the emulsion areas of a rod coated paper beyond the exposed image area. Many people cut a sheet of rubylith to mask the area against exposure when using a film negative, or create a digital negative with a dark border to print it white.

Judy Seigel and John Dugdale are fans of the black foam, wood handled brushes you can pick up at the Home Depot or other hardware stores. I struggle with this brush. With the Weston Diploma parchment, the foam brush raises the paper fibers. Perhaps I am too rough? John swears by them, they are cheap, and you won't get depressed when you dispose of them.

I played with coating large sheets of paper with a dense white foam roller I picked up at Home Depot. Inexpensive, washable. It is easy to doubly coat nicely with the foam roller. Lays an even coat down, seems to get the sensitizer into the paper mechanically without abrading the surface as I experienced with the black foam brush.

I've never soaked paper in sensitizer - thought I came close recently with cyanotype and Arches Platine (never could eliminate the mottling in the midtones with that paper).

I'm curious about commercial coating methods for cyanotype and platinum paper. Been scouting around for some historical descriptions - nothing has leapt out at me yet.

Adult Content Contained Herein

My apologies if I took anyone by surprise. There are some nudes in this blog in images I make or perhaps from a photographer I am referring to. As in my postings on Adelaide Hanscom and John Dugdale. I got flagged for objectionable content.

I found the option on searching through the pop up on setting the material to be flagged as containing Adult Content.

I've noticed museums increasingly having notices about nudity and content for exhibitions.

Anyway, if you choose to enter I hope you enjoy my blog. If you entered because the warning led you to look forward to a titillating experience I apologize for the boredom you are about to go through. 

John Dugdale

Judy Seigel suggested the best way to get a hold of John Dugdale was by phone and she gave me his numbers, one for his place in West Village Manhattan, one for his place in the country. She observed that being nearly blind, John didn't spend a lot of time reading e-mail.  

My interest in cyanotypes started on seeing John's work in print. I was aware of the history of the process, Herschel's invention in 1843 making it one of the earliest methods of fixing an image. The accomplished practitioners of cyanotype seem to have been few and far between, with Anna Atkins being one of the most prominent. Her photograms of British algae were assembled into the first photobook. Algae has perhaps never been depicted so sublimely.

John Dugdale was a successful commercial photographer in Manhattan in 1993 when an AIDS related stroke left him in the hospital for months often near death. While he recovered, CMV retinitis blinded him in his right eye and took all but 20% of his vision in his left eye. 

John returned to a personal photography after leaving the hospital switching to an antique large format Kodak camera. John employs friends and family, personal belongings and his home in his portraits, still lives and landscapes. His work hearkens back to the time of Herschel, Talbot and Cameron - an emerging time of photography and photographic vision. Relying on an assistant to focus the image on the ground glass, John directs his personal vision and style in the composition in front of him. He relies on his previous professional experience when he had full vision in understanding how light strikes and models objects, and how a slight turn of a vase or flex of an arm can strengthen the final expression. His intimate and delicate images are confidently and strongly composed. While acknowledging his 19th century influences, his work has the leanness of a modern simple sensibility.

I've seen his work in reproduction in several books. His first book, Lengthening Shadows before Nightfall, was published by Twin Palms in 1995 and was followed by Life's Evening Hour which juxtaposes John's images with passages from Dickinson and the Bible. The reproductions are quite good. I went to PhotoLA in January in the hopes of seeing some of his original prints but was unsuccessful. As I scouted around the net looking for John's local gallery representation I came across a reminder that 21st Photography had published The Clandestine Mind in a deluxe edition with photogravure reproductions of John's work. Given my additional interest in the photogravure process, I called up Lance Speer and asked if there was any remote possibility of one of those editions remaining. He said I was in luck, and he quickly shipped a copy out. The photogravure reproductions were wonderful. Lance mentioned they were made by Jon Goodman, and I mused again at how small the world is and at the connections to be found.

I was nervous calling up John. So much of my communication is by e-mail, I'd forgotten how personal a phone call could be. I'm not sure when the last time was I called someone up unannounced.  I left messages at both his numbers (his message in the country mentioning he was probably in the field). He called me back later that day and the first thing that struck me was his voice - a bit unexpected, warm and no nonsense. I told him how much I loved his work, and we talked about some of his prints, and we chatted at length about making cyanotypes. 

It was a simple and unadorned conversation about family, photography, and vision. I went into my darkroom later and tackled cyanotypes anew.

Paper Revival: Weston Diploma Parchment Plat/Pal

So, I've recently made some beautifully detailed, smoothly toned cyanotypes using my store of discontinued Crane's Weston Diploma Parchment and Mike Ware's new cyanotype process. I purchased 250 sheets of 11 inch by 14 inch, and 100 sheets of 28 inch by 34 inch in June 2007 from Bostick and Sullivan. The paper is extremely smooth, a warm slightly cream color (that lightens during washing), and it is exceedingly difficult to determine a smoother side for coating. The paper is subject to chemical fogging with the new cyanotype process, though this is easily controlled with one drop of 40% citric acid solution to 1ml of sensitizer. By 2008, Crane and Co., the sole supplier of currency paper to the U.S. Treasury, ceased production of this paper.

As I was looking around for information on my remaining store of Weston Diploma Parchment, I found a posting on the f295.org site stating the paper had been relaunched by the Butler-Dearden Paper Service Inc. The story here is very interesting to the alternative process community in that it seems Weston Diploma Parchment was relaunched specifically for alternative process printing.

Last Monday, I contacted John M. Zokowski by e-mail at Butler-Dearden inquiring about the availability of the paper and pricing. He replied promptly and offered to send out a sample, which I received by Thursday when I was preparing to leave for Jamaica. I stole an hour before my red-eye flight to take the paper for a spin with the new cyanotype process.

John had sent me five or six sheets of 11 inch by 14 inch paper in a sturdy shipping envelope. John's detailed description of the paper includes the following specifications:

Weight: 177GSM/47#

Thickness: 10 MILS

Color: Warm White

pH: 6.5 Average

Surface: Velvety Smooth

Edge: Plain

Fiber: 100% RAG

Sizing: Rosin-Alum

The paper looks like the former Weston Diploma Parchment. As I pulled out a sheet, I immediately noticed a difference. There is (to my Bergger COT 320 trained fingertips) a front smooth surface and a rougher back surface, not as pronounced as COT 320, but there nonetheless. If anything, the smooth surface is even smoother than the original from Crane's. It felt the same weight as its predecessor.

I did not have time to do a full PDN calibration, as I wasn't yet finished packing, so I decided to process it like its predecessor. I quickly rod coated a sheet with 2ml of new cyanotype sensitizer with 2 drops of 40% citric acid solution. It coated smoothly and quickly, and on pass five of the rod began buckling as the original was wont to do. I let it dry for about 20 minutes and completed drying it to bone dry with a hair dryer set to low heat. No blue spotting, or green turn to the emulsion - so far so good. I grabbed a digital negative I had made from the calibration of the original paper, and a 31 step tablet, and exposed the lot in my vacuum frame for 2m 20s.

The paper looked well exposed before I placed it face down in a water bath with a splash of very dilute hydrochloric acid. I moved it after a minute to a plain water bath and since I was in a hurry I let it sit only a couple minutes before gently spraying it with a hose to complete clearing.

The rebirthed paper felt similar in wet strength to the original - which is to say it gets fragile quickly. This is no problem with cyanotype processing as the wash is pretty quick. I inspected the 31 step tablet exposure and decided that this new paper was slower than the original paper, but only slightly. I think a calibration would put its standard print time somewhere short of 3m 30s. When I get back from vacation I want to try a calibration without the added citric acid - this version may not be subject to the chemical fogging of the original.

I am just about to send my order in to John Zokowski for 200 sheets (or... more?) of the 28 x 34 sheets, and to thank John for his work on reviving this paper. I'm just a bit distracted by the Jamaican Hummingbirds flitting amongst the feeders. 

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.

The New Cyanotype: First Impressions

I've been exploring the new cyanotype process invented by Mike Ware these past few weeks. This is the first of a series of notes.

I decided to give the new cyanotype process a try because of some frustrations I had with variations on the classic cyanotype method. The biggest problem being highlight staining, areas of deep blue bleeding into highlights fouling them. Also, emulsion run off while washing the print. A print would look good following exposure showing the "tone reversal" (formation of Prussian White in the shadows) on correct exposure, but then the wash water would take on a blue Ti-D-Bol look as the print washed away leaving an anemic result.

Mike Ware suggested I try his new method during some correspondence. I was aware of it, and had read about the process. It has gotten a reputation for being complicated, but I would beg to disagree. Replacing the ferric ammonium citrate with ferric ammonium oxalate as the sensitizer, heating the two solutions to dissolve (the second being the same potassium ferricyanide as in the original process) in a hot water bath to dissolve, combine both and let cool overnite. Filter the precipated crystals (coffee filter suffices) and top off with distilled water and (with a touch of ammonium dichromate - please use gloves and filter mask) you have a single bottle solution that has a shelf life of 4 - 5 years. Mike has complete instructions on his site.

Mike eliminated the grinding of the potassium ferricyanide long ago. He rightly points out that the materials used are more hazardous than in the classic formula - but really not much more hazardous than the chemicals used for palladium printing, and certainly a far cry from the daguerreotypists concerns.

Mike's observations on the two processes held true for me. I had some difficulty getting the sensitizer to penetrate papers with the traditional cyanotype formula. Tween 20 may have helped, but I was always left with a slightly gritty feeling on the coated surface. The new cyanotype emulsion penetrates the paper I've settled on, Crane's Weston Diploma Parchment, greedily. The addition of a drop of Tween 20 to 5ml of solution (which coats with a glass rod a 8+ inch by 28 inch sheet in 5 passes) will cause the emulsion to emerge out the other side of the paper! No Tween 20 needed. Coat smoothly and rapidly, with confidence. I did have to add a drop of 40% citric acid solution per ml of sensitizer to avoid chemical fogging by the paper.

As the (Mark Nelson designed) 31 step tablet shows to the right, cyanotype is capable of a huge tonal scale. The tablet (laid over with Pictorico Ultra Premium OHP Transparency Film which I use to prepare my digital negatives) shows 24 or 25 steps of exposure scale (each step being 1/3 stop). The tones are smooth. For all intents and purposes with the extremely smooth surface of the paper I am using this is showing smoothness and detail as if it were a fine blue palladium print.

Exposure time is speedy - using Mark Nelson's Precision Digital Negative system I  calibrated a Standard Print Time of 2m 20s. I'm too old for the exposure times of classic cyanotype. Once I calibrated the process and paper I was whipping out prints like there was no tomorrow.

The sensitizer really gets into the paper and binds well (Mike explains why on his site). With classic cyanotype I had settled on an inverted wash in still water per Sam Wang's suggestion to minimize the emulsion runoff after exposure. Be gentle. Not so with the new cyanotype. Perhaps I'm getting a little crazy, but I dip it in a slightly (hydrochloric acid) acidified wash for one minute, put it inverted in clear water for a few minutes, flip it drain and run the gentle spray of a hose over the image to completely clear.

I will try the classic cyanotype process again to round out my experience with alternative processes. John Dugdale uses the traditional cyanotype process with great success. Anna Atkins algae series is sublime. But I think I'll be sticking with the new cyanotype process for my work moving forward.

Recent Extinctions: Crane's Weston Diploma Parchment

I settled on a paper for making cyanotypes using Mike Ware's new cyanotype process, a natural tone Crane's Weston Diploma Parchment. Crane Paper Company stopped manufacturing this paper a year ago. It was considered a worthy successor to the whiter, also discontinued, Crane's Platinotype.

I had been struggling unsuccessfully with Arches Platine and Bergger COT 320 and the new cyanotype process. Belatedly I found a reference to a speckling problem with Arches Platine and the new cyanotype process. Platine coated smoothly, and did not exhibit highlight staining with either the old or new cyanotype process, but I was unable to overcome this speckling (mottling) problem. Interestingly, I saw speckling in the lighter midtones with the old cyanotype process on Platine, while speckling showed in the darker midtones with the new process.

I bought 100 sheets of 28" x 34" Weston Diploma Parchment from Bostick and Sullivan in June 2007. Along with 250 sheets of 11" x 14". Weston Diploma Parchment is a hot pressed paper with an extremely smooth surface. It is a rather thin (47lb), unbuffered 100% rag paper. I tried coating the paper with a cheap foam brush, but the surface abrades easily. I instead rod coat it, 5ml of sensitizer for a 10" x 28" strip. I do not use Tween 20, as the paper greedily absorbs the sensitizer without it. The paper buckles after the fourth or fifth pass of the rod, so you have to work quickly.

 

Like Platinotype its wet strength sucks, to put it mildly. But that is fine for cyanotypes which does not require much washing to clear. The paper tears easily when wet, but regains its strength on drying. It seems the warm color of the paper fades a bit with processing.

Mike Ware asked me why I had struggled so much with his process, and it was simply that I refused to let go of Platine and try other papers. It was John Dugdale who told me I was making this too complicated and that when he started with cyanotypes he went to the art store and grabbed 50 different kinds of paper and tried them all and used the one that worked best.  I mentally let go of the Platine paper and grabbed the Weston Diploma and that eliminated the speckling problem. Mike had suggested the addition of citric acid to overcome chemical fog for some papers, and it worked like a charm. I let the paper air dry in the dark about 1/2 hour, and try to use it in less than a couple hours. The sensitized paper starts turning green after a few hours, perhaps due to my tungsten working light. At this point it becomes fogged and unusable. 

New cyanotype on Weston Diploma has a Dmax of 1.31 on exposure of 2m 20s in my UV box. It has a huge exposure scale of 28 steps on a 31 step tablet. The smooth surface holds tremendous detail.

Similar to the possibility of bringing back to life other recent extinctions, Butler Dearden Paper Service, Inc. has seemingly begun manufacturing Weston Diploma Parchment again.

A Rainy Day in California

Our governor has declared a drought emergency in California. While I know it is childish, it is safe to say that our governor can beat up your governor.

As I wandered around downtown in the rain today during this emergency, I decided to grab that picture of Palo Alto Blueprint & Supply Company while I could. I've been hammering away at cyanotypes again the past few days, and I have had success. So it is on my mind.

I also took care of recycling with my son, and dropping things off at the dump that I no longer want as I try to organize my life - well, my garage - making room to work around my Takach etching press and for the things my wife is buying in preparation for the new child coming into our lives. A weekend of making way for the new, and discarding the old. Including the table I had gotten from my mother. I really no longer use it.

My son handed me my camera at the Palo Alto recycling center. After they rearranged everything at the recycling center recently (and eliminated recycling of styrofoam), I noticed that they had specific bins for recycling blueprints. I thought "How odd." when I first saw it three weeks back. My son said a worker compressing some recycling eyed me with boredom today as I took some pictures. I poked a bit around on the web when I got home and I suspect that blueprints are recycled separately because they were processed with ammonia?

How many kids growing up today know what a blueprint is? How long before the only knowledge of the word blueprint is its second definition?

I've never gone into Palo Alto Blueprint and Supply. I'm tempted to. Because that is a mighty big pencil in the window.

Mark Nelson has never sounded better

I recently purchased a Kindle 2. I'm one of those people that iPhone and other gadget makers target. I like to play with toys. It probably explains my deep relationship with my X-Rite 810 densitometer.

I have an original Kindle also - a Christmas present from my wife. I was resistant at first, but then started using the Kindle to hold various manuals and PDF documents off the web, instead of carrying them around with me while traveling.

The Kindle 2 has a couple of improvements over the original version. It is a little easier to use with better button placements (it was hard to pick up the old Kindle without hitting a button). It is sleeker and more attractive. It displays images with 16 shades of gray compared to the previous 4, which is a remarkable improvement (and reminiscent of LCD screens from the 1980's).

And it has the ability to translate Text to Speech, with a choice of speaking voice: male or female. I think you see where this is going...

I'm finding the Kindle 2 mildly fun and useful in the darkroom where I turn on Text to Speech while I work. Since it uses E-ink screen technology and is not a backlit LCD, it can be used in the speech mode in the darkroom easily. I was listening the other night to A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (one of my favorite books) while completing my work on Mike Ware's New Cyanotype and my old stock of Crane's Weston Diploma paper. 

I couldn't send the original PDF to my Kindle e-mail account to convert and download to my Kindle - it may have been too large for my mail system. I reduced the size from the original 24MB to 6MB using Adobe Acrobat Pro (part of Creative Suite 4) to optimize the PDF.

I think I need a slightly more sexy voice. Something with a British accent? Precision Digital Negatives read by the female voice of the Kindle 2 sounds like being lectured to by a stern librarian with no sense of humor.

I don't think this technology is going to replace Mark Nelson instructing directly, or is a serious threat to audio books in the near future. But it is pleasantly distracting while working in the darkroom.

Cavallo Point Lodge

I met Beth Moon this morning to look over some vintage and modern photogravures I've picked up recently. I brought books The Sonnets from the Portuguese, Taken from Life, and The Artistic Side of Photography. I brought a portfolio of photogravures by Laryew titled Nus: Cent Photographies Originales de Laryew circa 1920, and two separated photogravure leaves from Stieglitz's publication Camera Work.

Beth suggested we meet at Cavallo Point Lodge, where Elizabeth Opalenik and Brigitte Carnochan had taken her for her birthday. This is a very cool find. The hotel is situated at the base of a turnoff on the road to Sausalito just over the Golden Gate Bridge in the historic Fort Baker. The converted army quarters from the turn of the 19th century are beautifully appointed and afford a stunning view of the bridge spanning to San Francisco. Beth's reason for this meeting place was the public spaces are used to display photographic exhibitions.

I arrived a bit early, as there was no traffic. I walked into the restaurant area to grab a table and a cup of coffee. As I put down my backpack, I saw above my table a print of a magnolia by Imogen Cunningham. I walked up to the hostess and asked if there was a description of the Cunningham exhibition, and of course there was. All works from the Imogen Cunningham Trust are for sale. I walked around the room between sips of coffee.

Beth arrived and mentioned that all the rooms have works by contemporary photographers, and the gift shop offers monographs describing the work to accompany your stay in a room. We looked through the books above, and compared the photogravure leaf of Rebecca from Camera Work by Frank Eugene to a smaller photogravure of the same image in The Artistic Side of Photography. The Camera Work piece had much greater detail and tonal scale than the book print, and was gorgeous.

The last book we looked at was Volume III of the Journal of 21st Photography, The Clandestine Mind. Featuring the work of photographer John Dugdale, the deluxe book has seven photogravures (printed by Jon Goodman) and remaining images printed in lush tritone. The photogravures had a depth and a texture the excellent tritones lacked that held our gaze allowing little escape.

Beth took me to another common area on the second floor that was showing several large works from the series Ashes and Snow by Gregory Colbert before we ran off on our separate ways.

Don't forget to check out the art in the bathrooms. 

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.

From Digital to Cyanotype

Alternative processes for photography are most often UV light sensitive only. Because UV enlargers do not exist, you need a negative the same size as the final print for contact printing. In the past this has mostly been done with either in camera original negatives (using large format view cameras to produce the negative) or enlarged negatives using copy film. Tillman Crane, an accomplished photographer and platinum printer, has an extensive description on how to produce an enlarged negative in a traditional darkroom.

The resurgence of interest in alternative photographic printing in relative terms just preceded the emergence of widespread digital photography. William Crawford's The Keepers of Light published in 1980 was a guidepost for many early re-practitioners of  these processes.

Photography exists primarily for the masses and for commercial use to communicate, influence and store memories. Insofar as widespread commercial use overlaps the needs of the artist, materials are available for the artist's use. As digital photography began replacing traditional photography across a broad spectrum of the photographic business (event and sport photography, photojournalism, consumer) sources of materials for traditional film-based photography - including material for making enlarged negatives for contact printing - began disappearing.

I think it is this ability to blend the old alternative processes with new digital methods for making negatives that will rapidly emerge as the standard approach to making traditional photographic prints. 

At the top of this article is a (transmission) scan of the digital negative I created to produce the cyanotype print below. Using Mark Nelson's Precision Digital Negative system. I calibrated the traditional cyanotype process using step tablets to determine an ink combination to produce a negative on Mitsubishi Ultra Premium Pictorico film on an Epson 3800 with full tonal range and densities calibrated to the process, chemistry, paper and light source. Digital negatives are created on transparent film using dye or pigment based inks. It is obvious that the negative is not black and white as is a silver negative. Exploiting the different UV blocking capabilities of the different colors of ink in a printer is key to producing high quality digital negatives.

The second image above shows the coated sheet of Arches Platine paper with the cyanotype emulsion before exposure. The digital negative is sandwiched ("emulsion" to emulsion) and placed in my built-in vacuum frame in my custom UV exposure unit from Edwards Engineered Products.

My exposure time is 3 minutes and 32 seconds, which is quite a short exposure for cyanotypes. As the image just above shows, cyanotype is a printing out process, which means the image is fully created during exposure. Traditional silver gelatin printing is a developing out process which shows no image whatsoever until the exposed print is subjected to chemical action by the developer. Some processes like palladium printing are partial printing out process where the developer completes the visible changes started during exposure. For the exposed cyanotype, the paper is cleared of unexposed emulsion by placing it inverted in a tray of water, ensuring there are no trapped air bubbles under the paper, and letting it stand for 8 - 10 minutes. The goal is to remove all of the yellow emulsion stain from the image. Depending on your paper, your wash time may be longer. Following clearing, a 30 second dip in a tray of water to which a splash of hydrogen peroxide solution has been added will bring the image to full intensity immediately. The step is unnecessary if one has patience as the image color will strengthen to the same end result in 24 hours or more. I let the print drip free holding it by a corner, and then lay it flat on a paper towel. I take a roll of blue shop paper towels and roll it over the print to remove any surface water remaining and then allow the print to dry. Alternately you can simply hang dry the print. The print may be flattened in a press for final mounting and presentation.

I have a lot more to cover about digital negatives and alternative processes!

Cyanotypes

I've been struggling with technical aspects of cyanotype over the past couple weeks. And those struggles go to the root of why I started this discourse. To describe challenges and solutions and approaches for some processes I'm experimenting with.

The problems I have encountered so far include highlight staining, unblocking shadow detail, resolving mottling in mid-tones and highlights and achieving a smooth tonal gradation. I've been discussing these problems over e-mail with Mark Nelson, Sam Wang, Chris Anderson and Beth Moon, and re-reading Mike Ware's and other's technical notes on coating methods and problems. These problems and their solutions will be discussed further in the next few posts.

I have been using three test images during my calibration of Herschel's classic cyanotype, and those images suggest an approach to test image choice when tackling a new process.

The above high key image challenges the process to distinguish tone and detail in highlight. It also brought to light the mottling of the emulsion when coating Arches Platine that my low key image hid.

Much of my work when tackling a new alternative process involves calibration with a step tablet, determination of exposure time, and construction of curves using Mark Nelson's Precision Digital Negative system. At some point towards the end of that calibration process you want to print a test image that exhibits a range of tones from shadow to highlight with mid-tones present. Also, the image should have detail to allow judging the sharpness of the image. I have been using the image of the figure in coiled irrigation duct for that step.

For checking the calibration and handling of shadow detail I use the low key image to the left. The interior of the black bowl has a lot of subtle detailed variation in the darkest tones of the scale and revealing those details in a print requires a careful calibration and adjustment curve for each alternative process.

Paper choice, emulsion formula, coating method, development, humidity. These all factor into the calibration of an alternative process. Variations in any of these will affect the final result and ultimately mean the difference between a mediocre print, a good print and the final goal of an exquisite one.

Cool Resource Site for Epson 3800 Printer

Mark Nelson sent out a note pointing us at a resource site for the Epson 3800 printer.

The Internet is so cool.

The page is maintained by Eric Chan - who seems like quite an interesting fellow.

Some Technical Notes from David Michael Kennedy

David Michael Kennedy is an accomplished photographer and palladium printer. His landscape work is moody and immediate. I love his portrait work - and the way he expresses them in his prints. Rangefinder Magazine has an interesting profile on him.

But, once again, I digress.

He has published some extensive technical notes on palladium printing technique on his website that I stumbled across while looking for information on how much Tween 20 (a non-ionic detergent - by the way) to use to help an emulsion, in my case cyanotype, absorb into the fibers of the paper.

Realize, dear reader, that many of these alternative processes are related - or at least have related challenges. Scout around in other processes when looking for solutions to a problem you may run into.

Light Sensitivity of Alternative Processes

So, I've been preparing some scans of the various steps of making an image in cyanotype. I'm not the most accomplished print scanner (just setup my Epson V750 scanner which I had bought some time back to scan some 8" x 10" black and white negatives I have). I use a discontinued Imacon (now Hasselblad) 646 film scanner for my 4" x 5" film work which is similar to the current Flextight X1 model.

But I digress.

I scanned a dried but not exposed sheet of Arches Platine to illustrate the color to expect of a good emulsion and as I retrieved the paper to print my digital negative to show the next step I noticed it had partially printed out where it was exposed to the scanner fluorescent light.

Did I mention the cyanotype process is a printing out process?

The cyanotype process is slow as these things go, exposure that is. Depending on the strength of your UV light source exposures can range to 15 minutes or more. I was somewhat surprised that the sheet partially printed out from the scanner light, but shouldn't have been.

For the UV sensitive alternative processes you don't work in a darkroom as much as a dim room. I use a low wattage incandescent bulb, definitely not one of the newer energy efficient fluorescent replacements! If I coat multiple sheets of paper, I will put them in a black portfolio box to keep away from all light. If I'm simply drying a couple sheets for some quick work I leave out and I don't stick around to watch - but do turn off the incandescent light while I go watch another episode of Tales of Tomorrow.

For reproducible results, and preservation of one's sanity, controlling variables such as ambient illumination, humidity, and temperature can eliminate transient problems in your work.

That said, I am quite vexed by a mottling of the lighter mid-tones of my test cyanotype image. Another test awaits.

Bulk chemicals vs. pre-packs

At some point one will ask themselves the question "Should I buy pre-packaged chemicals or buy them in bulk?" This is almost the same as deciding whether to do your shopping at the corner grocery store or at Costco.

The difference in price is great when you consider the chemistry needed for cyanotype.

I buy a lot of my supplies fro Bostick and Sullivan. They sell a pre-packaged cyanotype kit for $24.95. The kit comes dry, pre-measured in bottles. They state that the kit will allow you to make about 200 8" x 10" prints (about $0.12 per print). The kit is shipped dry, you simply add distilled water to the top of each bottle and shake and you're done.

What is very convenient and safe about this is that you never handle the dry chemical, there is no measuring and transfer, and little opportunity for the fine powder to go airborne. All that said, wear gloves and a mask when preparing and handling the kit. Once the solutions are made, the emulsion is mixed as needed in small amounts for coating paper by combining the two solutions in a 1:1 ratio. The shelf life of the solutions is two years.

What is cool about Bostick and Sullivan is they have instructions on line for several alternative processes, including cyanotype.

You can buy the chemicals for the cyanotype process in bulk from a place like Art Craft Chemicals. There are many formulas for mixing the sensitizer and the Prussian Blue precursor (ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide). I am mixing 

• Solution A: 20 grams of ferric ammonium citrate (green) into 100 milliliters of distilled water (the sensitizer)
• Solution B: 8 grams of potassium ferricyanide into 100 milliliters of distilled water

I bought 1 pound of ferric ammonium citrate for $30.00, and 1 pound of potassium ferricyanide for $16.50. Normalizing the quantities (I need less potassium ferricyanide than I ordered) this is sufficient to make almost 10 times the amount of solution at only twice the cost of the Bostick and Sullivan kit, or very roughly 2 cents a sheet of 8" x 10" paper. And you can coat 2,500 sheets.

And herein lies the basic problem. How sure are you that you will like the process to do that much printing? Is blue your favorite color? The other problem is: to create the stock solutions you will need to purchase a small scale for weighing and some measuring cups (you're not going to use the measuring cups you use for cooking, just as you are not going to prepare the solutions anywhere near food). As you transfer the bulk chemicals and divide into smaller portions you have a much greater likelihood of airborne dust - more a hazard than the mixed solutions themselves.

A final problem is that these - and other chemicals for alternative processes - are hazardous materials. If you tire of a process you will have more chemicals to dispose of properly if you buy in bulk than if you buy the smaller kits. Christopher James's book has a good discussion on handling many of the chemicals for alternative processes.

Some things to consider as you explore different processes.

A final thought. It is well known that the sensitizing Solution A for cyanotypes is a perfect breeding ground for mold - I've been skimming it off in fascination. It does not seemingly harm the sensitizer (but can ruin a coating if you don't remove it from the solution). I never saw this with the Bostick and Sullivan kit - I think Kevin Sullivan is adding a preservative to Solution A to eliminate this problem.

I'm not a fan of mold.