From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 03/28/03-06:25:24 PM Z
On Fri, 28 Mar 2003, Tod Gangler wrote:
> That would be Gerard Aniere, a Frenchman who has made his home in England
> these last many years. He's an expert printmaker in many alt-processes,
> including cyanotype, salt, albumin, dye transfer, and even gum. These
> prints are actually color carbon prints. Gerard just likes to call them
> carbros. He thinks that someone might actually have heard of carbro and
> know what it is, imagine! All the materials are made by hand by Gerard.
> The enlarged negatives for contact printing are digital film negatives from
> a high resolution imagesetter.
>
> How much were the prints selling for? Any red dots?
Ah thanks Tod -- I thought you might know something, working as you do
with a current incarnation of the process. But,the plot thickens -- I
have a copy of an e-mail from Aniere (which, long silly story, I didn't
lay hands on until today), in which he cites "the Outerbridge book," there
followed by "A Few Words on Paul Outerbridge" who "in 1930 first had the
insight to research and experiment with Carbro-color prints."
My books say the term "carbro" was coined by combining "carbon" and
"bromide," and that carbro was made on factory paper exposed by
projection (usually) contacted to a dichromated pigment sheet which gets
selectively hardened by the metallic silver, usually (but not necessarily)
transferred or double transferred to another sheet. Multi-color carbro is,
the books say, exposed through color separated negatives, then the pigment
sheets transferred on top of each other. Now, from what you say, I gather
there was no silver gelatin print to start with, but he went directly from
neg to the pigment sheets. (The term "carbon print" probably does confuse
the lay mind... suggesting black, as in carbon paper, tho whether "carbro"
is much improvement, who knows?)
As for your last question: No red dots. As far as I could tell, none had
sold... The gallery is new, so probably doesn't have a cadre of collectors
yet, and frankly, struck me as knowing ZILCH about photography, though
seemingly cheerful, pleasant, and possibly educable. (I mean their next
show is Jock Sturges, which they spelled Strges, and the framed Strges
they showed me, silver gelatin, next to these "carbros" looked buried
under a layer of slime. Not to mention that I find Sturges a ROTTEN
photog, due, not to his supposedly risque or forbidden subject matter -- I
wouldn't care if he photographed nekkid nuns -- but his idea of
photographic tension is blah on yecch.)
OK, I digress, sorry... As the friend I saw the show with observed, people
buy what they think is OK to buy, and not knowing what this is, not having
heard about it, or having seen a review in the NY Times, they don't. If
there were a wait list, they'd be all agog, like getting the latest Nikes.
They've all heard of Sturges and oo la la, I bet they buy.
Price was $3000 each, low even for silver gelatin -- students these days
expect $1000 for 16 by 20. And I was in error saying they were 30 by 36"
-- that was the size the fellow who sent me the clip from the New Yorker
(which did have a blurb about the show) wrote in his note. The gallery
press release says 3 feet by 4 feet. If anyone knows anyone with a yen to
possess a spectacular print, which MUST increase in value (though that's a
terrible reason to buy art, and most art sells for more money first time
than thereafter) ... these are surely a prize. Edition of 10.
What remains in my mind as much as any particular "picture" is the leap
into your arms of the color and texture... representation of skin, for
instance, is almost an analogy to human skin, in that it's tactile, and
right there on the surface. The closer you look, the more delicate texture
there is. And far more beautiful than human skin, which is generally yucky
in closeup (except for babies). I doubt a book or monitor image or other
repro could do more than give the *narrative*, or "story." For the power
of these prints, you have to see them -- just floated in a box, BTW, no
glass, at this show.
The gallery press release doesn't mention the print itself or the process,
tho there is a separate sheet titled "The Carbro Print Process," which may
not be entirely accurate: It calls carbro the first color photographic
print technique ever developed... says it takes 45 steps (and 15 more for
drying stage), and nine hours to build the image, an extra two hours to
transfer the image, 10 days to complete one carbro, etc. etc. The
pigments, they say, are the same as those in oil paint, whatever that's
supposed to mean. And so forth.
> I am now compelled to add a note about the thrill and delight which has
> overwhelmed me since I received the newest issue of Post Factory
> Photography. Like another correspondent, I, too, even enjoyed the
> beautiful stamps. Thank you once again for another great issue.
And truly, I am compelledat this point to remark upon your superior
sensitivity, knowledge and critical acumen.
Thank you.
Judy
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