Re: a question
Judith Eastburn (jeastbur@webslnger.com)
Mon, 11 May 1998 22:40:58 -0500
I have a question that may be off-topic for alt-photo, but it doesn't
fall within standard black and white processing either, so here goes.
I teach photography in a high school, and I am also the darkroom monitor
at the end of the day. In this capacity, I find all sorts of things
floating in the sink after the students are gone...but what interests me
are the prints which have been developed, but not fixed. Sometimes they
are still in the developer tray, sometimes they have been tossed into
the sink. But they have a metallic surface quality of silvery
iridescence. This may be evenly distributed across the print, or may be
centered in specks or blobs on an otherwise dull surface.
When I fix these images, the shiny surface remains, along with the warm
tones.
These accidents can be quite lovely, but so far are entirely
unpredictable.
Some of my students are interested in trying to reproduce the phenomenon
with a measure of control, but when they try leaving prints in the
developer, they just get a dark, dull image. I am assuming we are
seeing deposits of elemental silver, but how are they formed? What
determines the shiny quality, why is it sometimes speckled and sometimes
even? And of course, how can they get it to work when they want it to?
Thank you for any ideas.
Judith Eastburn