>The Bea Nettles book was certainly the first I came across - I think it must
have been in some specialist outlets - perhaps Coo Press or the
Photographers' Gallery in 77 or 78. I also bought the Gassan book around
this time (and lent it to Terry for some years I remember!), but this was
all some time after we had got started.<
> These flock of books instigated the revival.<
I may have put the cart before the horse in this statement, there must have
been a real need for all these books appearing within a very few years of
each other
publishers are sometimes strange people, but they can most of the time
sense a real need, and make a profit out of that need, so it must have been
there, but why
I do not really know.
I think it is clear that there were a very small number of people interested
and actively working in the 1970's
This is very true and most of us were working in Isolation
> You mention one TV series but I remember a story about a quite different one
>in which an eminent UK photo historian demonstrated the Collodion process.<
>Yes I think this may the same series that I appeared in fronted by Brian Coe
>, the Producer was Anne Turner, certainly there was a demonstration of the
>collodion process<
>However I think is was in the mid '80's with the approach of the 150 years
that things really started to take off, and that following this we have seen
an enormous growth of interest.<
The revival was well under way by the mid 80's here, in theUSA' by the mid
'70' and I personally think that the historical perspective, has very
little to do with what happened, Maybe people felt a real need to make
rather than use. Again perhaps a reaction against the consumer society ?
>Interested to hear you were at it in the '60's - what was it that started
you on gum etc?<
I took up an appointment as a Photographic Lecturer at Salisbury College
of Art and Design in 1962, my responsibilities were to teach a vague
subject , then called Photo - Design, this was the buzz word of those
days.At this time colour television had only just arrived, the Sunday
colour supplement was important, and the UK had begun to clime out the
post war gloom.The swinging sixties were upon us,the pop culture had made a
strident entry, things were never going to be the same again. My students
demanded colour bright savage colour, the problem was at that time the
amateur print processes were crude and of very weak in saturation,the
professional ones were a bit better,but very complex and technically
demanding besides also being relatively expensive. I flirted with fine art
printmaking such as screen printing, lithography,and photo-etching,and then
rejected them
as time consuming and demanding to much skill, in hindsight it may have been
better to stay with these processes. however playing around with these
graphic arts processes made me realise that I could make prints in the fine
art manner using greasy inks, and graphic arts imaging ,such as drop tone,
Solarisation linear and random screen techniques.
then one day when passing a local bookstore found that they had a copy of
the Photo-Aquatint by Alfred Maskell and Robert Demachy for sale for two
shillings I believe.On reading this book the answer to my problems was at
hand.
So my interest started out as a teaching project but very quickly turned
into a personal obsession, My main concern is the control - not the
history. I have made no attempt in my work to resurrect late nineteenth
century forms of photographic imagery, however, I do greatly admire the
pioneering spirit of those early workers.
Direct control of individual colour relationships at the print stage has
been my main aim.Now of course overshadowed by the Photoshop revolution The
use of conventional photographic colour print systems, allows only a
limited amount of control. The colour against colour of the painter or fine
art print maker, is not really feasible.
During my time a number
of processes have received attention. Bromoil / oil transfer, carbon /
carbro, inhibition processes using home made emulsions,and many hybrid
variations. Each having its own particular strength or weakness.
After each sortie saw me returning like an errant husband to a forgiving
wife. To the classic gum - Bichromate process which in my opinion has no
equal in flexibility and creative potential.However we are now divorced my
Fotempera processes suits my personal requirements far better , and works
every time without fail
Sorry this has been a bit long winded Peter I needed to put it in proper
perspective from my* personal* point of view.
cheers pete