Re: bromoil

s carl king (sanking@hubcap.clemson.edu)
Fri, 19 Jan 1996 22:08:39 -0500 (EST)

Thanks very much to Pollmeier Klaus for publishing to the list
his procedures for working bromoil with the Kentmere SW-ART
paper. Bromoil is perhaps the most flexible of all the alternative
printing processes and capable of wonderful images. Luis Nadeau has
written that oil and bromoi are the most underestimated processes
of today and I could not agree more. Although I have never made
a print with this process I studied its history and practice
extensively as part of my research on a book which I did for the
Ministry of Culture of the Xunta de Galicia on one of Spain's
greatest bromoil artists, Schmidt de las Heras. As part of my
work I examined and cataloged nearly 300 bromoil prints from
the existing Schmidt collection (including quite a number of bromoil
transfers). I was struck by the extraordinary flexibility of the
process: prints can be made to have very coarse or very fine grain,
detail can be considerable or slight, clouds can easily be placed
where none existed on the negative, tonal qualities may be
quite dramatically altered, and images in any color are possible.

As noted earlier, the contemporary references are Nadeau's History
and Practice of Oil and Bromoil Printing (*free advertising, Luis*),
publishe in 1985, and a work by David Lewis, published last year
I believe. All of us on the list know how to get in touch with Luis
but I don't have an address for the publisher of Lewis's book. Could
someone post this information?

Sandy King
Sanking@hubcap.clemson.edu