Peter Marshall (petermarshall@cix.co.uk)
Mon, 15 Feb 1999 21:44 +0000 (GMT)
> Peter,
>
> There seems to be a lot of ideas floating around amoung alternate
> process
> printers that are just plain wrong and yet they persist. I have been
> told
> many times that cyanotypes are not stable but I never believed it based
> on
> personal experience.
Bob
My response to this has always been 'Tell that to Anna Atkins!' Her book -
the first photographically illustrated book - was with cyanotype and the
copy I saw a few years ago still looked pretty good. Naomi Rosenblum
prints a full-page reproduction of one in her 'World History..' from the
Gernsheim Collection at Austin, Texas.
The fact that some have survived in good condition is enough to disprove
the general statement. Of course poorly processed or poorly stored prints
in any medium will degrade. Its an obvious logical fallacy to conclude
that because some examples have faded they are all unstable.
>It now appears that that idea is finaly being
> discredited.
> It may be the same for toned cyanotypes as well.
I'm sure you are right.
Peter Marshall
On Fixing Shadows and elsewhere:
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~ds8s
Family Pictures, German Indications, London demonstrations &
The Buildings of London etc: http://www.spelthorne.ac.uk/pm/
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