From: Jack Fulton (jfulton@itsa.ucsf.edu)
Date: 04/17/00-09:33:59 AM Z
1st
re: mixing hydroquinone
I almost always mix my own b/w developer. Most of the time it is the D72 Kodak
formula which is quite
similar to Dektol. Sometimes (really for the sheer wonder of obtaining a magical
combination) I mix Ansco 230 (or is it 130) which contains Glycin.
One needs to start w/a "warmer than your hand" temperature of water.
Instructions normally call for 125ºF but my water is often about 110ºF.
If you realize that packaged developers contain all the various
chemicals in one
bag, you could actually do the same and add water later but the theory
is the
Metol (N-methyl-4-aminophenol sulfate which, I think, you can just call para
aminophenol sulfate, or, for those in Europe, sulphate).
Because developing agents rapidly extract oxygen from water (and faster
when it
is heated) most advise mixing the preservative, normally sodium sulfite, first,
so that when the developers are mixed in, this oxidation will not begin
immediately.
There ought not be any difficulty in dissolving the hydroquinone with
the warm
water temperature.
2ndly
re history
It's my premise that IF (and this is big 'if') one begins to practice an art
medium with sincerity, curiosity and dedication to obtaining ease with
skill AND
(this is big 'and') pays attention to the culture of the period one
lives in
WITHOUT paying much attention to what has gone on prior in the medium,
that one
will create a methodology of creativity slightly ahead of popular
praxis. IF one
continues this w/the same or similar devotion to curiosity, sincere interest,
and maybe even a bit of wonderment about what MIGHT be possible with the medium,
one will ultimately find themselves in the company of those who assiduously
"study" the medium. In time, after one achieves an ease with the medium, history
will rear its hydra like head and the practitioner will find, to their delight,
that, darn it, they've been doing what the others have been doing but
they are
slightly ahead of them conceptually.
If anything, academia popularized photography and aided in the
acceptance of
breadth of expression within the medium while also hindering a lot of self
expression.
My 2, perhaps 2.678¢ worth.
Jack Fulton
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