Grafist@aol.com
Date: 10/06/03-06:30:40 PM Z
Very many thanks to Scott Wainer for forwarding the description of the
Fresson process. However, as Judy said
"I doubt if this article is going to satisfy current desire, since it
specifies a prepared paper no longer available (calling Fresson, BTW, a
revival of the Artigue process). "
Current desire on this list for as long as I have been on it (since 1996) has
been "What is the formula for making a paper which will perform exactly as
the genuine Fresson paper did?"
A question which keeps coming to my mind is, what would one do with this
information should it become available? Keep in mind that Fresson is one of the
very few processes for which the details of the formula for making the paper
have never been published. There could be a very large number of bucks
attached to that information provided a very persuasive and satisfying proof of
the similarity to Fresson paper could be shown. There have been attempts ( on
this list) to put forward recipes for a "fresson" type paper process which
would probably, in my opinion, have produced quite acceptable results. But, one
could not call them "Fresson", could they?... and it is this name which has
accumulated the notoriety since it first came to light during the 19th C ( 1899
). Before then in 1878 Frederic Artigue accidentally discovered a way of making
a graduated tone image while he was working on architectural plan copying.
Artigue took his secret to the grave. Fresson worked for several years to equal
or better the results of the Artigue Charbon - Velour paper and came up with
his Charbon- Satin which he put on the market around 1900.
Quoting a quote by Charles Mouret in 1929 from Nadeau's "Gum Dichromate",
from which BTW I got the above information.......
"......Everybody possessing a fairly good negative and willing to follow a
few simple rules will be enabled to create Fresson prints, possibly of the same
exquisite tonal beauty as those that aroused a storm of admiration in a number
of photographic exhibits during the last two years. The process will not only
appeal to our most orthodox champions of pure and straight photography, but,
inviting various methods of local control, it will equally attract those
pictorialists seeking a more flexible medium that will yield to the formative
impulses of their creative hands."
If you had discovered, accidentally or otherwise after, say, twelve
years of experimentation, or by gleaning full details from some filanthropic
benefactor on this list, a method of preparing a paper which behaved PRECISELY as
described for the Fresson system of development with sawdust and which
produced deep matt blacks, a wide tonal gradation and clean highlights........what
would you do?
To quote a very close friend who first introduced me
to the work of Jose Ortiz Echague a champion of the Fresson system after I had
been involved with photography since the age of five and stuck with straight
processes for nearly 50 years, "Art for Art`s sake....money for God`s sake."
I am now in my 67th year and am still testing, testing, testing.
Best wishes. John Grocott- Photographist
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : 11/05/03-09:22:17 AM Z CST