From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 05/23/01-03:18:44 PM Z
Nick, bless you -- I mean aside from my quiet, indeed humble, appreciation
for your kind words, I am awestruck, simply agog at your retrieval system.
As I realize more keenly each day, whathehell use is it if you can't
access it? And as I also realize more keenly each day, the human brain,
aka analog retrieval system, is as likely to fade as any of the digital or
binary or magnetic storage systems we are warned about. (The NY Times
claims in an article today about how not to get Alzheimers that walking &
not watching TV are good. That is, each separately, although together
would also be good. Indeed I know for a fact that TV CAUSES Alzheimers.
Like in 8th grade.)
Meanwhile, I believe that chimigramme was the French, and chemigram the
English, maybe with variants, as chimigram, and perhaps even
chemigramme...
Pierre Cordier got a terrific amount of coverage in the States whatever
the year was, maybe '83. And I do have a folder on it in one of 11 file
drawers (maybe with my missing Stieglitz article !!). I see I wrote below
that it might have been "Camera Work." That was of course an error. It
almost certainly would have been either Camera Arts (the old one) or
Camera and Darkroom, as the only US magazines of the period that would
have done a non-mainstream process so tastily.
HOWEVER, I think Birdie is talking about something else. She's using the
term "chemigram," but the only ones I know of depended on exposure to
light. She says, "I intend to have a go at producing images on silver
gelatin paper without exposing the paper to light. "
Sometime this year I came across a little paragraph about that in an old
magazine, do thus & thus and you get an image without light. I was
dubious, but marked the place, and, although it's sunk beneath the waves
again here, it may be retrievable. I hope Birdie will report her
findings. However, she says she's looking for compounds that give
different "colour when combined with silver nitrate without requiring
light "....
Which I find confusing. How would you see them without light? silver
iodide and silver chloride etc. will make different colors (as noted by
Tony McClean in upcoming P-F now stalled in bowels of printshop in
Williamsburg as editor grinds her teeth), but unless that's done as bleach
& redevelop of an already made print, as his is, so no fixing is
necessary, fixing is likely to neutralize the colors. AFAIK if you're
doing all without light, silver nitrate is more trouble than it's worth.
Judy
On Wed, 23 May 2001, Nick Makris wrote:
>
> Christian, I'm not sure if this is any help, but all that I remember off
> the top of my head about a workshop with Pierre Cordier some 18 years ago:
> You put a resist of some sort on the undeveloped photo paper (factory
> paper!), exposing it to light, then alternate developer and fixer. As the
> resist wears away it makes alternating dark lines or areas from the
> developer and light ones from areas fixed without development. Undeveloped
> silver halide (always covered by the resist) will be grey-blue, and
> various other colors occur when the process is done in the light (as in
> acetic acid toning).
>
> Cordier's own work was very beautiful, including some using photo resists
> so that the design formed was photographic. He also got various stunning
> effects on color paper. The major finesse required is in application of
> the resist -- a pattern or screen of some sort would yield interesting
> results, but you could also "draw" freehand....
>
> Cordier was in a couple of US photo magazines at the time -- perhaps
> Camera Work. But didn't get quite the attention he deserved, at least IMO.
> I think, besides not being in the daisy chain here, the fact that some of
> his colors hadn't been fixed (the grey-blue halides) freaked out photo
> critics...
>
> Judy
>
>
>
> <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Jean Burdett
> To: alt-photo-process-l
> Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2001 11:17 PM
> Subject: chemigram
>
>
> I have started experimenting with chemigrams. I found some useful
> info in the archives. I intend to have a go at producing images on
> silver gelatin paper without exposing the paper to light. I know that
> if leaves are traumatised with boiling water, dried and placed on
> photographic paper, between the pages of a book, an impression of the
> veins of the leaf will appear on the paper without exposure to
> light.From memory it was a brownish colour. I didnt try to fix it. I
> intend to have a go at producing an image on silver nitrate wthout the
> use of light. If anyone can suggest chemicals that will produce a
> colour when combined with silver nitrate without requiring light i
> would be grateful.(:
>
> birdie
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : 07/12/01-11:29:40 AM Z CST