[alt-photo] Re: books before 1977

[Judy Seigel]

On Wed, 24 Mar 2010, Alberto Novo wrote:

> Were there any books on alt-techniques before "Breaking the Rules" published 
> in 1977? I think so, but I have no reference. May you help me? 
> Alberto

Aside from the relatively recent books already mentioned... (yes, there 
was intelligent life on earth before the Internet)... the way photo 
processes were learned was exactly through books (tho there were of course 
classes and schools and private gurus/inventors, they were not easily 
reached by the populace at large.)

Having entered the field at what (in retrospect) was the moment when the 
original "texts" seemed out of date & sold cheaply, but before they became 
collector's items and (I gather) vanished from the cheap stacks at 
Strand... I acquired quite a few... And by another cosmic coincidence, 
this very day, in a doomed gesture at order in the midst of chaos, I 
"organized" a bunch of them on a shelf together (tho not yet by subject or 
date --- do I have to???)

So I ran upstairs and grabbed a bunch from the end of the shelf... as 
follows:

"Collodion and the Making of Wet-Plate Negatives" a 34-page pamphlet from 
Eastman Kodak, dated 1935.

"Photographic Control Processes" by Franklin I. Jordan, FRPS, 1937 hard 
cover (from the Evansville Public Library, according to the fly leaf, but 
with handwritten note that "This book is no longer property of Evansville 
Public Library, but belongs to: George S Kelly, Basking Ridge, N.J."  (The 
price pencilled in is $3.)

"Modern Heliographic Processes" by Ernst Lietze, mechanical engineer -- a 
1974 reprint from the Visual Studies Workshop (Rochester, NY) of the D. 
Van Nostrand Co. 1888 original.

"The Silver Sunbeam" by J. Towler, M.D, hard cover -- a 1969 facsimile 
edition (courtesy Beaumont Newhall) of the 1864 original.

"Practical Printing Processes" edited by Frank R. Fraprie, is No. 10 in 
the Practical Photography series (pencilled-in price on my copy is $5), 
original from the American Photographic Publishing Company, 1936. 
Paperback, 63 pages.

Also in the Practical Photography series (#12) is "A Manual of Bromoil & 
Transfer," 1927, paperback 5 1/4 by 7 1/2 inches, 58 pages + 22 pages of 
ads.

"ENLARGEMENTS -- THEIR PRODUCTION and FINISH" by G. Rodwell Smith, is 
hardcover, from "The Amateur Photography" Library, No. 25, ($4 used) and
all of 145 pages, including several pages of ads, front and back, but only 
4 3/4 x 7 inches.

"Carbon Printing" by William Weston, from the Gennert Photographic 
Library, $5, similar in format to the above, copyright 1896, signed by 
owner "F. P. King."

and,

"The Photo-Oleograph Process, a Combination of Painting and Photography" 
by A. M. Marton, 1900. Cover copy adds: "The Art & Science of Painting and 
Photography."

(Needless to say, I love every crumbling inch of them.)

Judy