we respect your choice.
>Is there enough English so
>that the visual material is reasonably clear?
I would think so, but then again I may be biased as I did most of the
translation myself both ways and there are times where I don't even know
which language I use... This is the "advantage" of Canadian culture where
we produce functionally illiterates in not one, but two of the world's
better known languages;-)
Terry, Peter, and others, did you get most of what was going on? 60%? 75%?
Remember to be nice if you wanna be invited next year at the MEP's expense;-)
>Judy. You seem to be at a big University. Is there a video group there that
>could take a PAL original bring it up on a digital non-linear editing system
>and then make direct NTSC copies? Anyone else with this capacity? Doing
Good point. I'd like to see this myself so we can do a better job next
time, although next time may be so big that we will have United Nation
style translation were every word will be translated in real time. It is
too early to talk seriously about this in great details, but suffice to say
that the MEP administration has had a very good feedback regarding our
little impromptu meeting. We had visitors from England, Belgium,
Netherlands, Germany, Spain, France, the US, and myself from Canada.
For those who tuned in late, a couple of months ago I invited Alt-photo
members to meet me in Paris for an informal one-day meeting on May 4th.
Expecting a half-dozen visitors, through word-of-mouth advertising only, we
ended up with forty or so visitors (some say 49). We soon realized that
we'd need a fairly large room to accommodate that many guests, so Marc
Bruhat (the French UlstraStable specialist-in-residence on this list)
pulled a few strings and managed to get the Maison Europeenne de la
Photography's auditorium.
For those who don't know, the MEP is the newest Museum in Paris. A $35
million gift from the Chirac administration housed in a restored hotel
originally built, if memory serves, ca. 1716. At any rate they have a Web
page which has more info. Search for Maison Europeenne de la Photographie.
About a dozen people were interested in showing and discussing their work.
It's a very busy place, so we only had a window of three and half hours.
Since this originally started as the Alt-photo-Internet-gang-meeting, I
gave priority and half the total time allowed, to "us" on this list.
I hope I won't forget names...: Terry King (cyanotypes -great portraits-,
photogravures, gums and maybe Pt), Peter Fredericks, (who limited himself,
for lack of time, to Fototempera, a process producing bright multicolor
prints on a stable base -I haven't seen anything else like it), Klaus
Pollmeier, who talked about his (not for profit) publishing interests
concerning a trilingual periodical (history and conservation of photo) that
will have some 13 different original prints tipped-in --he's looking for
suppliers. There was also Marc Bruhat with permanent four-color carbons
(UltraStable) including very fine specimens on rag papers (I had only seen
them on a plastic base before).
Also thrown in, we had Philippe Moroux who talked and showed some
"kalliargyrotypes", a cross between vandyke and Mike Ware's Argyrotype,
i.e., an iron-silver process.
Finally, there was "moi" who showed some of my own carbon transfers,
monochrome and tricolor (which I no longer make commercially) and several
four-color carbon specimens (both halftones and stochastic screens) that
were given to me by Evercolor Corp.
Part "deux" of the meeting was left to two major French organizations
seriously involved with Alt-photo processes, i.e., APA (Association pour la
Photographie Ancienne et ses techniques) and Helios. They represent about
120 members.
The first, if I recall properly (I wish I had that video at hand!) was a
fellow named Brochet, ex-president of APA, who does (commercially) very
fine heliogravures (photogravures) and carbon prints. This was followed by
several others, including Carlos Barrantes, from Spain, who produces
alt-photo prints commercially. We also saw a wide variety of processes on
all kinds of supports from American born Malissa STAWICKI now living in
Paris (gum-platinum nudes) and Martin Becka, and others.
I can't remember everybody else's names and print types, etc., but the
overall quality was impressive.
There was Philippe Berger from Belgium, who has revived the Sury process,
documented in my Encyclopedia, p. 440. To summarize this, I'll give myself
permission to quote from the above text, since I own the copyright:-)
"...marketed in Europe, ca. 1920-1938 by the Belgian J.Sury. The paper was
coated with a layer of gelatin, in which were suspended a light blue
pigment, such as artificial ultramarine, and an inert pigment, such as
barium sulfate... it was sensitized in dichromate, dried, exposed... and
developed in lukewarm water. The dichromate stain was then removed in a
very weak solution of hydrochloric acid... reacting with the ultramarine
pigment, produced gas bubbles, giving the gelatin a **spongy**
structure..."
The above process gives a bright white matrix that I can only describe (now
that I have seen one) as the inside of an oyster shell. We actually had a
demo on how it is powdered up. He simply put a little bit of pastel powder
on the surface of the bright white matrix and with a cloth, started to rub
the powder into the millions of microscopic bubble holes and *instantly*
the matrix accepted the pigment in proportion to the exposure. I don't know
if this is caught on the video. There is a fair amount of control over the
powdering up. The print looks like a pigment print on a shiny surface which
annoyed me a little. I see in the technical literature quoted in my article
that there was a way to transfer the image, perhaps repeatedly, to another
surface. This would result with a pigment print without the shiny surface,
much like an oil transfer, except that the results are automatic. This
seemed to be *much* simpler than oil transfer.
I went out of my way to make sure everybody who wanted to show anything had
at least a few minutes to do so. The timing was left to Guy de Riencourt
and this only left about 15 minutes for each participant.
The day did not end there however. We had lunch at a local cafe and then we
walked a couple of blocks over to the Hotel de Sully where they showed la
creme de la creme that the Royal Photographic Society (Bath, England) has
to offer. Some 150 masterpieces in all, including original platinum prints
by Evans, and gorgeous gravures and carbon prints. What a show to wrap up
this meeting!
This was way too short! Everybody agreed that we'd need at least a week of
lectures, workshops, exhibitions...
I do have several meetings in Paris over the next couple of weeks and we'll
see what can be drummed up in terms of support, etc., to make this happen
someday
Luis Nadeau
Paris, France