From: Sandy King (sanking@clemson.edu)
Date: 12/14/02-11:35:26 AM Z
Farah Mahbub wrote:
>Dear Folks of List Seasons Greeting & Salaam,
>
>The school were I teach photography needs some updating with new
>material added to its little library. I can recommend about three or
>four books of my choice. So this time round instead of getting the
>usual tech stuff on studio photography .... thought I would ask my
>friends on the list what they consider their " 3 top most helpful
>information stuffed books on Alt- Processes ever" to add to the
>school's collection. Thank you
>
>
>
>Farah Mahbub
>
>Senior faculty
>Department of Communication Design
>Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture
>ST-33, Block-2, Clifton, Karachi - Pakistan
><http://www.indusvalley.edu.pk/>http://www.indusvalley.edu.pk/
><http://www.farahmahbub.com>http://www.farahmahbub.com
>Indus # (9221) 5861039-40/ 5838018-19
>Fax # (9221) 5861048
>Mobile 9221-300-9202023
I doubt you will get much consensus on this request because the
answer depends so much on what we understand as alternative, and my
definition of it is quite different from what it was several years
ago. My current understanding of the term places greater emphasis on
the end result, ie. the traditional historical printing processes
(salted paper, albumen, carbon, tintype, ambrotyupe), and especially
those that have been associated with pictorial printing methods
(vandyke, kallitype, gum, direct carbon, oil, bromoil), and virtually
anything derived from those processes (gum over cyanotype, gum over
platinum and kallitype, temperaprint, etc.) than on the negative
making process. I also understand as alternative a number of
contemporary processes such as silkscreen, polaroid transfer, etc.
And the status of some processes is in flux: silver gelatin printing,
which has been the most common photographic printing process for well
over a century, appears well on its way to becoming an alternative
process, whereas digital, which many of us considered an alternative
process just a few years go, is definitely not so today.
Less important for me is the equipment used to make the negative,
i.e. pinhole, banquet camera, Diana, Holga, soft-focus lenses, etc.
since negatives made from such equipment could be used to print with
modern silver gelatin and color printing processes as well as
alternative processes. I am not saying that this is not a viable way
to do creative work, just that it does not fit into my understanding
of alternative.
With that in mind here is my answer to your request. I have quite a
number of general books on alternative processes. If I were forced to
throw all of them away but three, the following would remain.
William Crawford, Keepers of Light
John Barnier, Coming into Focus
Richard Farber, Historic Photographic Processes
One can find important omissions and things to criticize in all three
of these books but on the whole they offe, in my opinion, the most
comprehensive treatment of alternative printing processes.
One can also find a lot of useful information in Christopher James'
The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes but I find his
omission of important pictorial processes such as oil, bromoil and
carbon difficult to understand. I could say the same thing about a
number of other contemporary books, including Jill Enfield's recent
book, entitled Photo-Imaging: A Complete Guide to Alternative
Processes, (and it is not even close to complete, though there are
nice parts).
Sandy King
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