Re: Colored Dags? / Hill
Levi L. Hill's Treatise on Heliochromy :
http://tinyurl.com/wkd3g
Hill was no "mystic"; nor was he killed by his exposure to
Daguerreian chemistry. Levi Hill was well known as an expert
practitioner and instructor of Daguerreotype. He wrote one of
the first manuals of instruction on the process in the USA which
was printed in several editions. After his invention of color photography,
Hill went on to become a successful chemist/inventor who held
patents in illuminating gases. Later, his business was in petroleum
and petroleum stocks.
The Hill plates that are held at the Smithsonian
are most likely not "Hillotypes".They are most likely examples
of some of Hill's experiments and hand-tinted Daguerreotypes.
It's a shame that the Smithsonian did not preserve them properly.
RE: an earlier post,
the William Becker article from Camera Arts was
in the Jan/Feb issue from 1981.
-Phillip
etienne garbaux wrote:
Ray wrote:
Now, to see some of these images, either originals, or somebody's
recreation....
Does anyone know who holds these?
The Hill originals in the Smithsonian collection would be one source,
although if Root was right, they are not "real" color dags. I do recall
that Hill was a kind of photo "mystic" -- he propounded theories
regarding the benefits of incorporating extracts of his natural
subjects into his photo chemistry (here's hoping he didn't branch out
into portraits!). Given that extracts from grass and tree leaves may be
green, and extracts from yellow flowers may be yellow, etc., if he
applied the respective extracts selectively to the portions of the
images occupied by the objects the extracts were taken from, might it
not color the objects in some version of their natural color? (He also
apparently believed that exposure to dag chemistry would cure his
respiratory ills. It of course turned out to do quite the opposite, and
killed him.)
I'm not sure anyone has persisting examples of modern
interference-based daguerrotypes, because (as I recall) they turned out
to be fugitive. Some accounts noted that fixing seemed to destroy the
colors. If this is true, and it sounds plausible, you'd have to make
your own and enjoy them fleetingly.
You might try to contact Mr. Boudreau to see if he has any surviving
examples. I believe the bibliographic reference provided by Gawain is
correct -- in particular, with respect to the year of publication
(1987, not 1997 as the reference I copied had it):
Boudreau, J., Color Daguerreotypes: Hillotypes Recreated. In Ostroff,
E., Society of Photographic Scientists and Engineers., et al. (1987).
Pioneers of photography : their achievements in science and technology.
Springfield, VA, SPSE -- The Society for Imaging Science and Technology
(Distributed by Northeastern University Press).
Perhaps Gawain could post a summary of Boudreau's article -- it would
be a welcome addition to this discussion.
Roger provided a link to the Smithsonian site that didn't work for me,
but if you persist, Hill's working instructions are reproduced from the
Treatise on the site. Start at:
http://americanart.si.edu/collections/exhibits/helios/darkchamber.html
Click the dag image to enter, then select the "Nineteenth-Century
Texts" link. The eleventh item in the list under "Contents" is a link
to Hill's working instructions. There are other links that discuss the
process, as well.
Best regards,
etienne
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