Re: Sury & Misonne

[Judy Seigel <jseigel@panix.com>]

On Tue, 1 Jan 2008, henk thijs wrote:

> It is written 'Leonard Misonne', born in Charleroi -  Belgien, and i saw an 
> exhibition of his work some time ago in the photomuseum of Charleroi, and the 
> pictures i saw were a.o. (brom)oil prints and
> gum, very  pictorialistic and depressing images of daily life and factories 
> next to romantic landscapes with sheeps et al.
I took a longer look at the American Photography Annual (No. 18, 1924) 
which I'd previously riffed through, and note a couple of points:

page 308,"THE PHOTOGRAPHIC REVIEW," by E. J. Wall, begins:

The "COLOR PROCESS":  E.Rombaut gives a brief description of the 
working of this new Process, which has been introduced by E. Sury, of 
Antwerp. It recalls the old powder process and it is distinctly different. 
The paper is sent out unsensitized, and it is advised to turn up the edges 
of the sheet.... and pinch the corners so as to form a temporary tray...."

There follow formulas (Am bi & methyl alcohol), & instructions for 
coating, draining, drying & printing... using a screen of black lines 
between negative & (insolation?-- which is -- the coating?). Some 2 pages 
of instructions in small print which follow are tempting to try -- (tho 
not to copy out).

Is this the "patented" method do you suppose, or something else? The 
powder brushed on adheres in the unhardened cracks where the lines in the 
screen "or "reseau" lay, hence color (or colors) may be added by brushing 
in.

After this topic a section on Resinopigmentype lays out the Namias 
process, using a "powder" made by "fusing resin, a fatty body and the 
desired pigment, then grinding when cold." There are plenty of fatty 
bodies & grinding  around here, but I'm still doubtful I could follow 
those instructions... What for instance is the "resin"?

Then the name is in fact Leonard Misonne, thanks Henk, tho no further word 
on his nationality.

Other info gleaned from turning all 770-odd pages is that females of 
the day tended to get tangled up naked in window drapes or table cloths 
that persisted in flying open when the shutter snapped (an affliction to 
which men were apparently immune) and that F. Drtikol showed a couple of 
comically arch figure studies that look like I Love Lucy drunk as a skunk, 
while the penchant for titling photographs of African-Americans of any age 
and mien with irrelevant expressions in crude dialect was in full fettle.

On page 493 we see a pleasant-looking middle aged man with pipe, beard and 
hat, comfortably seated with hands crossed, over the title: "Befo' De 
War."  (No better or worse than dozens, perhaps hundreds of the genre... 
There oughta be a book.  Proposed title:  "Praise de lawd" -- after the 
photo titled thusly, also for no discernible reason.)

PS. If someone has a...  I forget what you call them, a program that scans 
and converts to text-- and others are interested I can copy these pages on 
printing the above-mentioned Sury process & mail to him or her tp put on a 
website....( unless that's already been done?)

Judy

> happy 2008 ,
> Cheers,
> Henk
likewise,

Judy