U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | RE: Gum oil

RE: Gum oil



Judy,

>
Don, I think never in the history of photography did anyone ever get so 
much publicity for so little.  In retrospect, I'd say there were at the 
time still *many* photo magazines aimed at, or including in their 
audience, what we'd call "art" photographers, and the editors were 
definitely aware of "alternative processes," as the latest thing, & 
generating much interest.... but then they came to the end of the line: 
They'd done what they could with whatever they thought their audience 
would go for.

I don't recall an oil print article, by the way, tho there may have been 
-- but oil print was probably more material and process than their average 
reader cared to undertake.... and then, along came "gum oil."

Koenig's genius was not in the process, at least it never struck anyone I 
knew as worth trying -- (and of course if you could do real gum, no reason 
to bother) -- BUT what the man did UNFAILINGLY was get just enough in the 
magazine article to sound good, with a few prints reproduced in color that 
looked good -- and for the rest... YOU HAD TO BUY THE BOOK ! (which he 
stated shamelessly!)

Of course shame on the magazines for going along with that, but nobody 
there knew diddle about any of it, and it probably also sold magazines.
>

I purchased the book and still found it lacking but perhaps I wasn't savvy
enough to ferret out the salient details of the process, especially the
section on digital positives.

It was refreshing to see the work at the links posted by Katharine.

Don



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