U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: Chromoskedasic Painting

Re: Chromoskedasic Painting



Don,
Interesting you should bring this up now....I have been working on this process this last year--used to do it as well as teach it but Kodak quit making the chems and so in talking with Freestyle about how I wish the chems were made/available still, they looked into it, found a chemical house to make the chemicals, and have agreed to carry them--no small feat since they have to make 400 gals of the stuff up at once because the proportions are so minute. Since I have been unable to teach the process for several years you can imagine how happy I am! There were other brands of the chemicals but the formulas didn't do as good a job. But I already said all this in an email in the last month...

So for the last half year I have been in direct correspondence with Freestyle and then brought Alan Bean into the frey as the resident practitioner expert, and just lately with William Jolly himself, one person who is necessary to mention as a forerunner as well in all things sabattier and chromo. Jolly has retired and I'm not sure he will be spurred on to redevelop an interest in the latest findings...though I am trying. Jolly's articles appeared in Photo Techniques magazine, a very intriguing one called Silver Mirror Printing in 1999, before that Duotone Sabatter and another article or two. Exellent articles to have.

First Man Kit Lam and Rossiter, then Alan Bean and Jolly working together. Bean has made it his signature process for 10 or so years. I met him at the last APIS 2 years ago. I had read his article and when I saw his business card with his name and chromo on it I was thrilled to meet him like I was to meet William Crawford.

(Note: Both Alan's and my articles are here as I said in a post already this month:
http://www.freestylephoto.biz/10945-Arista-Premium-BandW-Chromo-Activator-32-oz.-For-Chromoskedasic
The problem is, that the silver you get does NOT scan or photograph--it either comes off as grey or fog or green. Like here: http://christinaanderson.visualserver.com/Image.cfm?nK=5537&i=98407 all the brown you see around the lavender is actually bright silver. And here: http://christinaanderson.visualserver.com/Image.cfm?nK=5537&i=98408 the fog is brilliant silver as well as here: http://christinaanderson.visualserver.com/Image.cfm?nK=5537&i=98406)

There tends to be confusion between two processes in the literature, and I, too, have been guilty of it. Edmund Teske did a "chromo solarization" but actually what he did if the literature is correct, is take a fully developed unfixed print out into the light and let it change colors with dripping normal BW chems on it. Chromoskedasic as Jolly and Man Kit Lam do it is where color is induced by chemical means--thiocyanate and hydroxide along with BW normal chemistry (and light as well). Jolly chalks it up to pure and simple fogging via thiocyanate.

I really like Teske's book and images--very contemporary though they were done decades ago. Worth looking at.

Alan and I are currently working on a pretty neat thing with the process that happened to me by failure. As soon as I can get Alan to replicate my experiment, I'll share. Otherwise I might have to chalk it up to Montana water. But it proves to me that mistakes are often the way to discoveries.

Chris
__________________

Christina Z. Anderson
http://christinaZanderson.com/
__________________
----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Bryant" <dsbryant@bellsouth.net>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca>
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2009 10:09 AM
Subject: Chromoskedasic Painting



This morning I was looking through an old copy of View Camera magazine (5th
anniversary issue, Sept/Oct 1992) and noticed an article titled,
"Chromoskedasic Painting" by Alan W. Bean.

I really have no interest in the "process", but thought I would mention the
article for those that are.

Alan also mentions a related article published in Scientific American around
the same time written by Dominic Man-Kit Lam and Bryant W. Rossiter.

A reprint of the article can be found here:

http://chemigramist.com/chromoskedasic.html

though it's not instructive as a "How To". It's brief description of the
photo chemical effects.

An illustrated PDF of the Scientific American article can be found here
(along with a companion article published in the Amateur Scientist column of
S.A.):

http://www.dominiclam.net/LAM_science/Chromoskedasic1991.pdf


Rossiter's name sounded vaguely familiar to me so I Googled and found this
reference.

http://www.usask.ca/lists/alt-photo-process/1998/alt98b/0993.html

The chemicals mentioned in Bean's article probably aren't available any
longer but I believe Freestyle has similar chemicals available.

Without droning on and on I would suggest to anyone interested to Google

"Painting in Color without Pigments". Include the quotes.

This will lead you to other pages with more information, not the least of
which is Jon Lybrook's old website:

http://chemigramist.com/


Don Bryant