Re: Earth Pigment Emulsion (questions)

Hamish Stewart & Sophie Colmont (Hamish.Sophie@wanadoo.fr)
Tue, 03 Mar 1998 14:19:29 +0100

>Subject: Earth Pigment Emulsion
>Sent: 28/2/98 19:40
>Received: 2/3/98 18:56
>From: Cyn Photo, CynPhoto@aol.com
>To: alt-photo-process-l@skyway.usask.ca
>
>I recently saw an incredible exhibit of photographs at the University of
>Michigan Museum of Art. These photograph monoprints, by Don Camp, are over-
>life-size portraits of African-American men measuring 30"x22" and 51"x39".
>
Sounds like quite an extraordinary exhibition - sorry I have no chance to
see it myself

>"The photographer explores a little-used and abandoned nineteenth-century
>process that uses pigment, in this case dry earth, suspended in handmade
>casein and light sensitized. After several layers of contact printing, in
>which he freely manipulates and recomposes the image, he removes the excess
>pigments from the print by water-soaking, rinsing, and scrubbing the paper.
>This process blends the paper, pigment, and image, making the image one with
>the paper. The sepia-colored emulsion tends to bleed into the paper."

I am just wondering how similar this process is to gum bichromate - is it
the colloid that defines it apart from Gum printing or it essentially the
same except using casein rather than gum arabic? The actual mechanics of
the process sound similar to gum printing...