U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: Fresson = Echague Look.

Re: Fresson = Echague Look.



My understanding on this, and I could be wrong, is that Ortiz Echague did not buy an actual machine, but engineering information and drawings that allowed him to make his own machine.

There could well have been multiple coating machines. Bear in mind that this is a very low tech process that could be carried out in several different ways as is true with making carbon transfer tissue. In the old days most carbon tissue was made with the pick-up method in which a roll of paper was passed over a warm vat of gelatin solution. This is how B&S makes the tissue, or at least I believe they make it this way. It is also possible to make tissue by pouring the tissue on top of the paper, evening it out with a rod or blade.

In any event there is nothing complicated about any of this, though for good results consistent working procedures are absolutely essential. For example, making carbon tissue when the working conditions are 75F is a totally different proposition than working at 65F.

For an individual interested in making relatively small amounts of carbon tissue the pour on method is by far the easiest and takes up the least amount of space. Using a leveled table that measures about 32" X 35" I am able to pour between 10-12 sheets of 26" X 32" carbon tissue in less than a couple of hours, allowing about 10 minutes at 70F for the sheets to set before moving them to a drying rack. The same procedures would work just as well, IMO, for making a direct carbon paper.


Sandy King





At 5:19 PM +0100 1/16/08, Tom Sobota wrote:
John,

I remember reading somewhere that in the 1960's there were several Fressons who were descendants of the inventor of the method. One of them sold the patent to Ortiz. The others are still active with the process at the Atelier Fresson. Probably at that time there existed two or more machines.

Tom Sobota
Madrid, Spain

John Grocott wrote:
Hi All,
Jose Ortiz Echague, undoubtedly, though the galactic amount of successful prints he made by Fresson methods, has become almost synonymous with this Direct Carbon process.
Other well known photographers such as Sheila Metzner had their pictures made by the Fressons. Echague, himself, worked with the Direct Carbon paper which was sold to him. The Fressons gave Echague the formulae for the emulsions together with the machine to mass produce the paper for himself since they discontinued making it for commercial sales. One wonders how the Fressons continued to make the paper, as they still do to this very day for their own use, if they never had another machine or alternative method standing by..............
I am dabbling with plans to make a machine tho' most of my Direct Carbon coating methods have so far been successfully done, by hand, without a machine. Marek seems to be achieving good results, also, without a machine.
Hey Ho. The quest goes on +on + on + on + on.............
John - Photographist - London - UK