Unknown Process

Hi All,

I recently had a question from someone who'd attended a workshop on what he
called "alternative photography", wanting to identify the process and
chemistry they'd used. I don't know. His description follows, followed by
his reply to my request for more details. Any ideas, anyone?

Thanks,

Liam

> Description of the quiz I have to solve, colour photography:
>
> Sheets have already been exposed (they contain the latent image and are
> steel white). The purpose is to developp them.
> We work with a very few daylight. The room must be dark but
> not completely. No artificial lighting is needed.
>
> 1. Sheets are sucessively imbibed with two products:
> The first one is brown liquid with a medium smell, I think often used in
> photography.
> Sheets are imbebed with this frist product, in the darkroom, the prints
> become black (like dirty or bad photocopies).
> The second product used is transparent like water but is very odorous
> (when you smell it, it is very aggressive). That looks like ammonia very
> concentrated and I was told it could be a stop bath.
>
> According to you, what are these two products?
>
> I made the two first steps and now I cannot remove the dirty black veil
> on the sheets. How could I do?
>
> I saw a demonstration during the said workshop, this is how it was done to
> remove the black veil:
>
> 2. In order to clean this black veil, a powder of green-blue colour
> is used (sometimes, it is a translucent clear blue gel ... like shampoo!).
> The dry sheets are put into this powder and have to stay some hours, still
> in dark.
> When withdrawn, this powder has changed colour and is now brown clear (as
> if it had absorbed the first brown product used), after some days, it is
> white powder.
>
> Another way of processing the same step is that this powder is directly
> mixed into water (water becomes clear blue).
>
> When this powder is introduced into water and mixed: water becomes light
> blue. Prints are now introduced in this bath and have to stay some 2 to 5
> minutes, agitated moderately. When withdrawn, prints have now their
> visible image, covered with a slight blue-grey veil.
>
> My aim is to understand this process.
>
> According to your experience, what could be this blue-green powder or blue
> gel product? A bleach, a fixer, a developper, which one, which kind ?
>
> 3. We end using either a transparent liquid (but sometimes it is crystals
> like brown sugar which is melted to water and becomes the transparent
> liquid, sometimes, it is a very light yellowish-orange powder : if you try
> to preserve this powder, it becomes like melt and is no more a powder but
> makes small blots). When put on the wet sheets, immediately, they become
> clear pictures with all details and colours. Then, we dry. Pictures are
> ready.
>
> According to your experience, what could be this last product?
>
> I really need to identify and find the chemical and commercial names of
> THE TWO LAST products and I would be sincerely grateful to you if you
> could help me. If you may identify which is this process, and in case of
> availibility, I would order the stuff from a company or a retailer.

And then:

> I will try there to give you some more indications on the process I am
> talking about :
>
> - actually, it seems to be a duplication process based on photography. The
> personn who made this workshop used already made colour pictures. These
> colour pictures are put in contact with their correspondantly same exposed
> latent pictures (they are white but he told us that they were already
> sensitised and he avoided direct light during work). The aim was to
> duplicate the first visible image onto the white sheet containing the same
> image at a latent stage.
> - he worked with the described products and only aluminium foil to wrap a
> group of sheets made of : one visible colour picture, one latent colour
> picture.
> - no tray, not tank are used.
> - then the two first products are poured successively onto this group of
> sheets : both become as I said "dirty black" (the initial one, and the
> white one). Then, he made pressure on it some minutes and the aluminium
> pack is closed. Still in dark.
> - then, still in dark, sheets are withdrawn from the aluminium pack. He
> used the blue-green powder with water in order to have a light blue bath
> (under either its powder form or gel form), and when washed with this
> product, both sheets become covered of a light blue veil but at this
> stage, image is visible whithout having its final colours.
> - then, with natural lighting or artificial indoor lighting, is used the
> last product (brown crystals like brown sugar which immediatly melts in
> contact with water - highly soluble, or it is light yellowish fine powder
> - very soluble too and fizzling with water or with the remaining light
> blue veil ? or the possible form of it is a transparent solution), in
> contact with this last product, immediatly, both sheets take their final
> colours and the copy is the same as the initial one.
> - it seems right a matter of contact : you have to wait some minutes with
> sheets under pressure before to use the two last products. Maybe contact
> printing ?
Received on Wed Aug 18 20:57:14 2004