Re: 3 questions (one of them dumb)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Judy Seigel" <jseigel@panix.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca>
Cc: <alt-photo-process-error@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2008 8:56 PM
Subject: 3 questions (one of them dumb)
1. Pretty sure I asked this a while back, but nobody
answered so I repeat:
A friend, masterminding a class mixing vandyke brown
emulsion, finds that when the silver nitrate is dissolved
in the "distilled water" the solution turns somewhat
milky. I recalled having had the same experience years
ago, ultimately discovering that the "distilled water" was
actually tap water, bottled as and labelled "distilled."
This was established by the chemistry professor who has
since retired, and nobody on the premises can or will do
whatever the test was today.
Friend said she'd been told there's a solution that tests
for "distilled" i(I have a note "Solenoid black from
NZ" -- could that be it?) Any info or advice would be
gratefully received.
2. I saw the Soho Photo gallery "Alternative Photography"
show on Friday, and recommend it (for those who can get to
15 White Street in Tribeca by Nov. 20, tho check for
gallery hours [Wed PM + Thursday thru Saturday, but not
cast in concrete, so double check by phone].) Chris
Anderson has TWO of her "parking lot" tricolor gums in the
honors list -- and tho some of the variety AFAIK flunked
spelling (it's orotone, not auratone, n'est-ce pas?), the
variety of subject and form was a pleasure... also,
upstairs, work from the Polaroid collection, and more.
But that's not my question, which is as follows: One of
the works was labelled "chromogenic print." Now it's true
that my memory has been eaten by moles and moths, and I
myself never made such a print, but my thought was, that's
just a fancy way of saying "color photo", like calling an
inkjet print a "glicee." So I looked up "chromogenic
print" in the two books I could find (two out of maybe 7
is a good rate around here). The best definition was in
Luis Nadeau's "Encyclopedia," which explained that most
"contemporary color photographic materials belong to this
category" ... also called "dye coupler prints," and
"(improperly) C-prints."
Maybe that IS "alternative" today... but still, isn't that
just a regular (color) photograph?
3. What is glycin? I know it isn't glycerine, more's the
pity, but it's not in Nadeau... There are of course some
photo chemistry books around here, now deeply buried in
the Morton Street Mississippi Delta. So, I thought, it
can't hurt to ask.
thanks in advance,
Judy
There is a short article on Glycin at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycin
Note that there is another substance, Glycine (with the
e at the end), which is an amino acid, there is a relation
between the two but photographic Glycin is not the same
stuff.
Type C refers to an old Kodak description for
chromogenic prints made from negatives. Chromogenic means
that the dyes are produced in the emulsion. This needs a
little clarification because I believe Kodachrome is
considered a chromogenic film even though the "couplers" are
in the reversal developers rather than in the emulsion
layers as in modern color films.
A print using a material operating on a similar
principle is a chromogenic print while dye transfer, three
color carbon or carbro, three color gum or oil, are not
chromogenic. I think this term is like "silver-gelatin"
perhaps meant to clarify the exact process used to make a
print but possibly confusing to naive buyers. Not quite as
bad as Giclee, which is IMO a deliberate attempt at
confusion. BTW, since Giclee really means an inkjet print
its probably incorrect to use it for laser prints or color
Xerox. Frankly, I think the term should be banned from
gallery use and the terms inkjet print be used (or laser
print, etc., whatever the thing happens to be). I once asked
a gallery owner about Giclee and he got very unhappy
effectively asking me and an accompanying friend to leave. I
think he didn't know himself what it was but understood it
might be just a bit fraudulent.
--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@ix.netcom.com
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