Re: new edition of Photographic Possibilities
On Sat, 13 Dec 2008, Christina Z. Anderson wrote:
cut... cutThere's also a chapter on alt processes. I had the feeling that at least the gum section of Edition #2 was done by "someone else," or not an experienced gum printer. (After all, Hirsch seems to put out 500 pages a year & can't be everywhere at once.) I pointed these out in my review (which I'll probably find when I finish my index), but checking the book I see about what I remembered... 1) "Pure blues are difficult to achieve because the orange dichromate tends to shift the color balance to green..." which has the sound of a newbee-- as we know, a shift to green would be cured by a clearing bath. 2. "Any subtle or fine detail will be lost in the process..." This statement is ambiguous, as it could apply to the first part of the paragraph about printing when register has been lost. But because most books of the period said reflexively "gum can't do fine detail", it was suspect. 3. Same paragraph as above: Gum "does not deliver a realistic color image balance." See #1 above. I commented on these points in my P-F review, so maybe they got corrected :) ? To give you an idea: I juried 124 bodies of work for a particular group, and out of that I counted approx 4 alts and 20 film-based.But that figure could have a lot to do with the leadership of "the group." I'd bet that, for instance, Chris's "group' could have the ratio in reverse. I'd also bet that in MANY cases the distinction betweem a gum print & an inkjet couldn't be made without closeup examination WITHOUT the glass... Meanwhile, just or fun, here's a way of presenting inkjet to fudge the fact: I got an announcement for a show by Anthony Cuneo at Amos Eno Gallery (111 Front St, #202, Brooklyn, on til Dec. 20)...The work on the card is titled "Roots of the Japanese Knotweed", a *pigmented inkjet print." J.
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