Re: Truth Beauty book
On Wed, 13 May 2009, Jack Brubaker wrote: Exactly... besides which, they didn't have the factory materials we have now. The story of the invention of gum printing is that Demachy was in his photo supply shop (ca 1896), complaining that with the current material he couldn't get a good black, when a fellow customer described someone's new gum process: "you mix paint with gum arabic, add potassium dichromate, coat it on paper, expose under a negative & wash in water." Demachy allegedly made a few tests, then got his gum prints in the next salon.Chris wroteWhat I cannot understand, though (forgive my opinion here), is that generation's fascination with the Michallet paper that had strong vertical lines.Chris, when I look at the Demachy prints I see someone trying to make photos look like chalk drawings. He chooses the red chalk color and uses the tiniest brushes lifting out highlights to emulate academic drawing standards of the 19th century. One of the prints in the St. Louis show a couple of years ago of fishermen pushing their boat up onto the beach had remarkable details in the hands. Knuckles that we would understand without further delineation in a photo he had carefully highlighted no matter how dense the shadow it hovered in. I love the prints but think it is a very interesting look into the era that he felt compelled to such extremes. In that context his use of common drawing paper texture seems a natural. Jack (The story was reprinted in a couple of early anthologies. I've got it somewhere, but maybe someone knows the reference right off?) J.
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