Jack Fulton (jfulton@itsa.ucsf.edu)
Mon, 19 Apr 1999 07:25:44 -0700
Dear All Tern Ate Foe Togs :
Here is perhaps a trick or perhaps an illusion or Ö something weird happened in
the darkroom so many many years ago.
Regarding color print and negative permanence (or is that word that even ought to
be used in conjunction w/the words color photography?)
in speaking to Henry Wilhelm quite a while back, I asked him about the longevity
of Agfa's color paper (yes, not RC) from the 1960's. He noted it was one of the,
if not the worst, papers for color fading Ö particularly in a high humidity.
In the 60's, those halcyon daze, time was urgent and the color process was
expensive and long Ö too long. I had noted in mixing b/'w developers there was
mention of tropical developers so named because of the impossibility to obtain a
68ºF temperature in those sweaty environments near the equator. Too, I knew of
the shortened development times if one increased the temperature.
Employing that knowledge to color I wondered if the processing time for the Agfa
material could be shortened. I believe the process temp was 75ºF, so I hitched it
up to 100ºF. Also, I wondered why the bleach and the fix were separate items and
mixed them together for one-time use. There was also a formalin (37%
formaldehyde) emulsion hardener at the end.
Suffice it to say that I reduced an over 20 minute process to 5 minutes which
made an urgent young man rather joyous in 1965 Ö because I had to go out and
listen to poetry, to see Alan Ginsberg get arrested for saying fuck in public. It
was all sort of a post modern deconstruction of the semiotic origins of color
chemistry.
Further still, I had knowledge of silver residue tests and hypo clearing agents
and after the fixing I employing the hypo clear and twice-as-long wash period.
Sometimes I even used fine furniture wax to protect my prints.
Anyway, my tale of youth now over, the point is that it is my opinion that in
doing the extra washing and using the hypo clear agents AND the formalin bath I
managed to somehow preserve, better than normal according to Mr. Wilhelm, those
fugitive clouds of color analine dyes. I still have the prints and they are now
over 30 years old. On the other hand, I have commercially made images of my
parents standing in their backyard (both of whom have now passed on) and the
color has rightly faded greatly. In fact, the photo of my folks was found about a
year ago w/one corner buried midst other papers and that had not faded. I took it
out and laid it on my studio desk and that since has faded an equal amount to not
make noticeable the once obvious difference. The good point is that it has not
faded further.
Hence, from all this, I recommend double washing, the use of a good hypo clearing
agent Ö and I'd even use it a wee bit stronger as was my choice then. I still
have color negatives from that period that can squeak out a print too.
WHILE STILL ON THIS TACK
I also note that my fading tests, not as sure as Mr. Wilhelm's, are noting
that Elsa Dorfman's large color Polaroid will indeed fade after a year of hanging
on a bright wall. Virtually all ink-jet prints ill fade too. An ALPS print since
it is pigmented will not. I will release further notes on my rather non
consistent but at least attempted, color fading tests at the end of the summer.
Jack Fulton
April 19th, 1999
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