[alt-photo] Re: alt archives silly factoid

[EJ Photo]

Chris, Paper is the single biggest part of our process that gets personal
the moment it arrives. We all have different storage methods, supplies, UPS
and Fed Ex shipping times and temps.  In short everything that affects the
papers affects our prints and ultimately our printing process and workflow.
I see paper, and how it affects images, as being the biggest issue with
digital printing too. We are after all, making prints not screen displays. 

and you (old) gummist, were really filling the old alt in box for a while.  

Eric Neilsen
Eric Neilsen Photography
4101 Commerce Street, Suite 9
Dallas, TX 75226
 
www.ericneilsenphotography.com
skype me with ejprinter
Let's Talk Photography
 
-----Original Message-----
From: alt-photo-process-list-bounces at lists.altphotolist.org
[mailto:alt-photo-process-list-bounces at lists.altphotolist.org] On Behalf Of
Christina Anderson
Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2012 9:49 AM
To: Alt List
Subject: [alt-photo] alt archives silly factoid


Dear List,

Well, I have finished going through the alt archives 1994 - 2005 (the ones
that aren't online) and there were some surprising finds. I thought I would
make up a quiz on this stuff but it would be way too many "off topic" emails
and I'd get reamed.

What I found surprising was the number of emails on certain topics. I was
only looking for what I was interested in (e.g. not interested in ever doing
daguerreotypes so I didn't look at those messages though they were few
anyway). And I have to amuse myself while looking so I play number games.
Numbers are VERY approximate.

1900 gum
300 cyanotype, platinum, and Van Dyke brown
100 salt
80 Fresson
50 argyrotype
40 ziatype
40 combotype
40 casein

But what surprised me is that the questions on "which paper for which
process" exceeded VDB,Cyano, PT/PD--almost 500 of them!

It illustrated to me how paper specificity is a major concern in our field.

I'm not drawing any conclusions here because it could just be that newbies
ask the most questions in certain areas, and certainly the proliferation of
gum was due in part to the "chatty kathys" being gummists (of which I
include myself) and the most heated arguments revolved around gum and of
course VDB and cyanotype are two entry level alt processes where more
questions might be asked. 

But paper??

OH, and the top was probably digital stuff, as we saw the change from
creating large format negatives in the darkroom to imagesetter where
available to finally the ink jet printer negs. But those did not interest me
as that information is dated. The good thing about alt is it doesn't become
dated as much.

I think the archive would be the best historical "proof" of practice out
there if anyone was interested in tracing the movement of a movement.

Just an interesting Sunday morning factoid for all of you :)
Chris


Christina Z. Anderson
christinaZanderson.com

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