-----Original Message-----
From: Judy Seigel [mailto:jseigel@panix.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2008 3:49 PM
To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
Subject: Re: Sury & Misonne
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