Reposting: Mordancage process notes

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From: Jonathan Bailey (quryhous@midcoast.com)
Date: 03/22/01-12:37:54 PM Z


This is the post I sent to the alt-photo-process list in April 1999. I have
made a couple minor additions to the text. Hope it helps. JB
========================================================================>
Greetings-
>
> I will attempt to share with the group my mordancage process
> notes, as well as a little background which might prove useful.
>
> In late 1996, new to the internet and to this list, I posted a request for
> information about the mordancage process and received a smattering of
> useful, if somewhat random, information. In addition to the list-posted
> information I also heard from Jean-Daniel Lemoine in Paris who kindly put
> me in touch with an expert in mordancage who lives in the Loire Valley,
> Pierre-Louis Martin. I was in Paris in the spring of '97 and met with
> several very fine photographers - many of them members of this list - as
> well as arranging a brief meeting with Pierre-Louis while he was in Paris
> on gallery business. Nothing could have more emphatically demonstrated to
> me the potential and power of the internet than my request made to this
> list about mordancage!
>
> The work that Pierre-Louis shared with me - something approaching 100
> mordancage images, arranged in portfolios - was astounding!
> While I'd seen
> a small number of Jean-Pierre Sudre's mordancage prints - a few
> may still be seen at this web site address:
> http://www.photoconnexion.com/index/e_index1.htm - as well as a small
> selection of Elizabeth Opalenik's unique work in the process
> (www.opalenick.com), I'd never seen anything like Pierre-Louis'
> work: mordancage images which had been exotically toned (and
> split-toned?) in addition to the etching and emulsion-lifting
> from the mordancage. A selection of his work (along with
> four-color gravures from Jean-Daniel Lemoine, among others) were
> exhibited the summer of 1998 in Boston at the alt-process show
> arranged at The White Elephant Gallery. I will send and ask
> Pierre-Louis (through a friend of his, he has no computer) if
> there are images of his on the web other than the three
> (regrettably poor) reproductions posted at
> <http://www.multimania.com/gapcho/> - (click on "Les Fables de la
> Fontaine par Pierre-Louis Martin" at the home page).
>
> Pierre-Louis had worked extensively with Sudre for many years before
> Sudre's death in 1998. Pierre-Louis is teaching workshops in France, but
> I am unsure if these classes focus on his work in gum (and other
> alt-processes) or if they also include mordancage.
>
> As I live in the shadow of The Maine Photo Workshops (15 miles away),
> former students of Craig Stevens are thick on the ground. It was through
> one of these acquaintances that I first heard of mordancage and saw some
> prints. Craig continues to teach this process at his (and Chris James')
> week-long class each summer in Rockport (probably the single most popular
> class at The Workshops every year), and he apparently includes it in his
> classes at Savannah School of Art as well.
>
> Craig also knew Sudre *very* well (telling me last summer during our brief
> meeting, "He was like a father to me....") - spending time in France with
> him each year during his Provence workshop. Craig has been working with
> this process for years (if not decades) and is clearly an expert on the
> process. Curiously, neither Craig nor Pierre-Louis were aware of each
> other. I have a small selection of Pierre-Louis' prints, as
> well as a few
> color reproductions which he was willing to share with me for my classes,
> and I showed Craig this work last summer while he was in town.
>
> Judy suggested that mordancage is another name for the historic
> "etch/bleach" mentioned in vintage references, and this may well be valid.
> Further, these old references may be an excellent source for
> tweaking one's
> practice of the mordancage process once successful results are obtained.
> However, I am very much under the impression that *mordancage*,
> whatever the
> similarities it may have to historic etch/bleach processes, is creditable
> to Jean-Pierre Sudre. Craig refers to it as "Mordancage - As perfected by
> Jean-Pierre Sudre." At the very least, I think it's safe to say
> that Sudre
> considered his use of the process "proprietary" (perhaps setting the tone
> for other practitioners of the process).
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> My Formula and process notes: c Jonathan Bailey
>
> I am quite sure that the following has at its core the handout Craig
> Stevens gives to his classes. Don Upp posted to this list a couple years
> ago (after one of Craig's classes?) a prose version similar to the
> following information....
>
> That being said (and to be perhaps tediously scrupulous in giving proper
> credit), it is the work that Chris Pinchbeck did with his work/study
> classes at The Rockport College (yes, it's now accredited) that clarified
> things for me last year and allowed for such successful results in my
> workshops. He very generously shared with me the particulars of
> his use of
> the process and I thank him!
>
> The mordancage solution:
>
> 750 ml water (cool or cold)
> 10 grams - copper chloride
> 25 to 35 ml - 40 (or 30) volume hydrogen peroxide
> 50 ml - glacial acetic acid
> water to make one liter
>
> Use:
>
> * Bleach a well washed print in the mordancage solution for 3
> minutes (wear
> gloves and work with good ventilation!), followed by a 15 minute wash.
>
> * Redevelop the print in any of the following (but not limited to the
> following!):
>
> Dektol at 1:5
> weak or nearly exhausted Dektol
> Sulfide toner (Part B) - weak, used of full strength
> Polytoner, Brown toner, or thiourea redevoloper
> (Whatever else seems worth trying)
>
> * Rinse the print under running water. You might allow the print to sit
> out in the air 5-10 minutes (or longer) to oxidize, perhaps adding to the
> coloration of the final print.... or NOT! maybe you can't wait to see this
> thing, so you plunge ahead to the next step immediately.
>
> * Back into the mordancage solution - "timed" by inspection. At
> this point
> you might take a cotton ball and rub the emulsion off of the print -
> partially or completely - as the image and whim dictates.
>
> Further, you may also observe at this point that entire sections of
> emulsion - the darkest areas of the print - are floating in
> suspension, but
> still (barely) attached to the print. You may wish to rearrange and/or
> reapply this emulsion area to the print - in the manner of a
> Polaroid lift.
> Elizabeth Opalenik has turned this into her signature maneuver with this
> process.
>
> * Redevelop or tone the print once again. Use stop bath to halt this
> action when judged complete. Wash the print for 30 minutes.
> (This wash may
> not be a real option if you have done emulsion manipulations, as
> it will be
> too fragile. Some sort of washing is obviously suggested - but
> then again,
> *not* thoroughly washing can lead to further color shifts over
> time, shifts
> which may, for the open-minded, be interesting - although not strictly
> archival as a technique!)
>
> * Screen dry
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> c Jonathan Bailey
>
> The choice of the image seems more important than the choice of paper with
> this process - warm and cold toned papers seem equally suited (Brovira was
> Sudre's favorite), as does the use of RC paper. Print color is certainly
> affected by the choice of paper, as well as the redevelopers put to use.
> Photograms seem very popular with this process (an inclination
> underwritten
> by Sudre's work?), although I have not gone that route with my own
> experiments - and the student work in my workhops have thus far all been
> images from negatives.
>
> I have not attempted any of the split-toning processes I employ on my own
> work subsequent to the mordancage of the print. It is an area I wish to
> explore. I believe Pierre-Louis is toning his images (subsequent to the
> mordancage? - I am guessing) in things like coppper and blue toners (?),
> and is achieving beautiful effects. Most of Pierre-Louis' work
> incorporates at least some photograms in the image....
>
> I am unaware of any published information on this process. If someone
> knows of information in print, or of information in the old references
> which seems pertinent, I'd love to hear about it! Further, I'd love to
> hear (more) from those people who are working/have worked with the process
> previously and whose practice of it differs from the info I've
> posted here.
> (I was interested to hear of successful results with the weaker hydrogen
> peroxide, for example.)
>
> Good luck - I'd love to see postings on the list about people's progress
> with this wonderful process!
>
> Jonathan Bailey
> St. George, Maine
>


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