Re: mordancage

["Christina Z. Anderson" <zphoto@montana.net>]

Hi Thom,
     Please excuse the following explanation--it's late.  Mordancage is
similar to bleach/etch if not the same; you submerge a bw print in this
acidic bleaching smelly combo of copper chloride/acetic acid/hydrogen
peroxide and it eats away the emulsion of the print, but mainly working in
the dark shadow areas to eat away the denser parts, and then it etches the
highlights of the print (to an extent) so that if you rub off all the eaten
away dark parts of the print they become light, and the light parts still
there grab the dektol or toner and become dark.  Hence the reverse print.
If you don't rub you have a remaining wavy, veily eaten away stuff that
looks quite funky and suits some images just fine. These bleached veils of
stuff redevelop in dektol or toner, too, going back to the original positive
image but it's all disintegrated now.  If I can ever figure out how to start
a web page I could post some examples...also do an alt list index search
under mordancage and you'll get lots of posts on it.
     As far as why do it, you know what's weird?  I taught it to my class
the first time this past fall, and no one was really that excited about
learning it but they all got into it, and I keep seeing their finished
product popping up in shows.  Now everyone wants to learn it and the ones
from the class before where I didn't teach it are whining about not being
taught it.
     Images that suit the process well are varied; one of the most
successful I've seen was one of my student lying her head on a rock.  The
mordancage makes the image look like a bad acid trip--as in LSD, not copper
chloride.  Drippy and melty.  Another student did a studio shot of herself
in a cowboy hat with a black background; the black background veils around
the body and the hat really nicely.  So you see--anything goes, maybe even
cutesy little baby shots...(just kidding about the latter)
chris
----- Original Message -----
From: Thom Mitchell <tjmitch@ix.netcom.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Monday, May 20, 2002 8:08 PM
Subject: Re: mordancage


> Maybe I came in late but for us new to Alt. what is mordencage? Obviously
I
> am fascinated by the possibility of producing a neg or a pos from the same
> print. Can you simply discuss why someone would use the mordencage
process?
> Thanks, Thom