[alt-photo] Re: Metalotype

[Paul Viapiano]

You must be kidding...well, there goes all my fun! I had to check my 
calendar to make sure I hadn't slept through the last 20 days of March...

Anyway...God, if you're going to go that far, just make some goddam inkjet 
prints and be done with it. Is there anyone left on this earth who values 
effing craft anymore?

Digital brought technology to music and now we have complete idiots 
"writing" and "playing" music, who can't read a lick of it and wouldn't know 
an Eb from a D#...and they think they're musicians on the same level as a Yo 
Yo Ma.

Paul




----- Original Message ----- 
From: <C.Breukel at lumc.nl>
To: <alt-photo-process-list at lists.altphotolist.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 7:06 AM
Subject: [alt-photo] Metalotype


> Got this mail form Mike Ware some time ago (I am on a mailing list of
> mike, guess some people already heard about it). Anyway: food for
> thought I guess....
>
> Cor
>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>
>
> Metalotype:  Metal-jet Printing
>
>
> The current practice of Hybrid Digital-Alternative Printing involves
> making large negatives digitally with an inkjet printer, in order to
> contact-print them photographically onto hand-coated 'alternative'
> sensitized papers of the 'single-layer' category, such as cyanotype,
> argyrotype, palladiotype, platinotype and chrysotype.
>
>
> With the advance of digital printing technology, this wasteful and
> complex procedure could soon become redundant: to obtain an identical
> result, it would only be necessary to fill an inkjet printer cartridge
> with a solution of Chemical A, and print the 'potential image' onto a
> sheet of fine paper. This would then be 'developed' in a solution of
> Chemical B, which reacts with Chemical A to produce the desired image
> substance in situ, probably in nanoparticle form; the print is then
> washed and dried. Depending on the choice of Chemicals A and B, the
> result could be a plain paper print in: Prussian blue, silver,
> palladium, platinum or gold, with the image substance embedded in the
> surface fibres of the paper, just the same as hand-coated siderotypes
> printed photochemically - and laboriously - from negatives.
>
>
> Such prints should be indistinguishable in their chemical and physical
> structure from those made by the  traditional methods.
> I suggest the names Metal-jet Printing or Metalotype for this procedure.
> It would have the following advantages:
>
>
> 1) It would eliminate all the alternative photographic paraphernalia: no
> UV light sources, printing frames or vacuum easels,  coating implements,
> safe lighting, photosensitive chemicals, etc. This might encourage more
> digital photographers to try 'alternative' image substances and fine
> papers.
>
>
> 2) It would eliminate the large internegative - which is costly in
> ceramic-coated film and pigment printer inks.
>
>
> 3) The wet processing procedure would be simple, reusable, economic, and
> eco-friendly.
>
>
> 4) For a print of an 'average scene', it would consume less than one
> tenth of the amount of precious metal required at present, because none
> is washed away in the processing. Saving over 90% of the cost of
> platinum, palladium, silver, or gold would be a significant benefit
> which could widen the appeal and use of these precious metals as print
> media.
>
>
> The possibilities do not end there, however: because there is no need
> for the imaging system to be photochemical, a wide range of simple
> chemical reactions - by metathesis or by reduction-oxidation - could be
> employed to make digital photographic prints on plain paper in all sorts
> of stable pigments never previously usable; for instance, the insoluble
> sulphides, selenides, chromates, and iodides  of various heavy metals
> such as lead, bismuth, mercury, cadmium or silver. Besides the familiar
> Prussian blue, other coloured ferrocyanides and ferricyanides are
> possible. In addition to the traditional platinum, palladium and gold,
> the other 'noble' metals could be reduced, as images in rhenium,
> ruthenium, rhodium, osmium and iridium (should anyone wish to do so).
> Three-colour printing should also be possible. Other metals and more
> exotic pigments will suggest themselves to the inventive chemist as
> potential image substances, but the chemistry required is mostly
> elementary - CM 101.
>
>
> The difficulties could be expected to arise with achieving an
> appropriate rheology of the "ink" solution of Chemical A for the
> piezoelectric printheads, by adjusting its surface tension and viscosity
> parameters for the best distribution in the cellulose paper fibres.
> Doubtless these are deep commercial secrets, already well-understood by
> the manufacturers of printer inks. A benefit would come from the "ink"
> being a true solution, not a particulate suspension, so there would be
> no problems of clogged printheads; there may however be issues of
> corrosion and toxicity with some chemicals.
>
>
> Is there anyone out there with the technical know-how to convert an
> inkjet printer to this use? I'm just amazed that it seems not to have
> been done already. A chemically-dedicated inkjet printer could simply
> eliminate the negative and the photochemistry. This is the logical end
> result of 'hybrid practices' using digital technology. Unless one chose
> to embrace pure analogue photographic practice, it would be time to bid
> farewell to all siderotypes!
> (Meanwhile, I continue to make them...)
> Mike Ware, March 2010
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Dr Mike Ware
> 20 Bath Road
> Buxton
> Derbyshire
> SK17 6HH
> UK
>
>
> +44 (0)1298 78604
> mike at mikeware.co.uk
> http://www.mikeware.co.uk
>
>
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