Re: josef sudek

[Judy Seigel <jseigel@panix.com>]

On Tue, 7 Apr 2009, Christina Z. Anderson wrote:

> Dear All,
> I just finished researching a delightful book of Josef Sudek's Pigment 
> Prints.  I have always liked his work--a darkish pictorialism with a bent of 
> odd--and when I saw this book I had our university library buy it (it is 
> pretty expensive).
>
> What I thought was a book about gum prints was in fact what I then thought 
> was a book of carbon prints and then I think I have come to believe is really 
> a book of carbro prints, if the author of the article in the book is 
> correct--that Sudek exposed a bromide print, and then put the tissue in 
> contact with it as per the quote below.  So I think I am correct in defining 
> this as "carbro" and not some other such process though I am not sure because 
> the process was not named.  I bet someone on the list can say for sure.
Yes, that's carbro... I knew the description from the old books, but had 
never actually seen carbro, til I saw a show at In-Camera Gallery in NYC, 
printed by Gerard Aniere. The photograph "Des's First Date" by David 
Stweart (on the announcement) was charming, but the actual print (or 
prints) in the gallery blew me away... so much so that I did an article 
about them in Post-Factory #9.  If memory serves (I'm NOT going to re-read 
that article at 1:15 AM)  Aniere was living somewhere near whatever that 
strip of land at the bottom of England is, and doped out the carbro 
process by trial, error, research, and talking to folks like that fellow 
in Washington State who did something similar... As I recall Liam Lawless 
put me in touch with him & we talked by phone/e-mail... His comment, that 
I used as blurb, was "It's pleasurable. I wouldn't do it otherwise, but I 
like the science as well."

I think that goes for a lot of us... (including gum printers).

goodnight all...

Judy



> ("Pigment prints were exposed onto BW paper and then pressed in contact with 
> the carbon pigment tissue and the silver based image was transmitted 
> "chemically" onto the carbon tissue." P. 15 Barbara Michaels, On Sudek and 
> Music)
>
> I like the fact that Sudek continually photographed the same window, simple 
> subjects, and the light is mostly glorious in the work.  It is a beautiful 
> book if you have lots of extra money (about $40 on abebooks.com).
> Chris
> __________________
>
> Christina Z. Anderson
> http://christinaZanderson.com/
> __________________