the history of gum queens (and kings)
Dear All, Oh my goodness... I thank Judy, Mark, and Sandy for being aware that I am, in fact, a gum printer, and a tricolor one at that. I did think that was pretty obvious in the last 8 years I have been on the list....hmmmm. Makes me wonder if all the time I have spent posting to the list about gum has been worth it...And I didn't start tricolor over cyanotype until Clemson in 2003. I have made gum printing my process of choice since 1998 after learning it from Rudi Dietrich at Montana State University. Rudi's gum prints were in Hasselblad magazine in the 1980's. In fact, the reason why I went to Clemson University for graduate school was specifically to study under Sam Wang after I saw his amazing tricolor gum prints at APIS. I would consider Sam a tricolor gummist first and foremost, and though he is known in Barnier's book for promoting gum over cyanotype, I have seen his tricolors without a cyano underlayer, too. But lately he has been an alt slut because he is doing a lot of platinum/cyanotype. For the record, I do monochrome gum, duotone gum, tricolor gum with or without the cyanotype layer, gum over platinum, in fact, I put gum anywhere it can go except where the sun don't shine. My grandson who lives with me asks me, "Gamma are we going to gum pint [sic] today?" He knows I am a gum printer and he is only 2 1/2. He doesn't know the "tricolor" distinction yet...And yes, he does gum print with me and no, he does not eat dichromated sausage. He is a vegan. Otherwise he would. To answer Diana's question of why cyanotype (and thank you Diana for a wonderfully reasoned post--we need more like that), it is a great layer to register on, it is smooth, sharp, and detailed. But it can just as equally be thalo blue. The benefits--cyanotype takes 5-15 minutes to develop out, so it speeds up the process. And generally, with a cyano underneath layer, the image is plenty dark with only a yellow and magenta coat on top, in fact, if the cyano layer is not curved correctly it becomes too dark and the resulting gum is ugly. Unless "dark" is the correct device for the image. Sometimes I print a very light cyano underlayer and three coats of tricolor (thalo included) on top. If invalidation was not a continual list issue between particular members, a simple question about "who is a tricolor gummist" would have evoked no heat. And, sorry guys, with the history of invalidation that occurs on this list, and the question's timing, I would be hard pressed to believe that "who is a tricolor gummist" is an innocent question. Call me supersensitive, PMSy, menopausal, the "B" word, psychotic, or maybe even astute. I just don't stand a chance ANYWHERE. You see, I had a convo with an unnamed but famous gentleman about the history of alt. We were talking about gum queens, and he firmly and unequivocally said that Judy Seigel was the one who warranted "gum queen" without question. Whoa, shot down! I tried to spirit away her Post Factory Journals sitting on the shelves in the Eastman House Rare Books Library....I even thought to expunge the images of hers I showed just this week on PowerPoint to my alternative process class...hey, she did that T-Shirt book that I am going to lecture about tomorrow in my documentary class, with NO gum in it...even SHE is fickle and I stand a chance...but, no, now, my identity as a tricolor gummist is in question????? Can I at least be "gum princess"? Chris CZAphotography.com
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