Re: Paper Negatives - a start

<<Hoping this will open up a whole new field of interest. There are
other ways of making paper negatives for which, I feel sure, others
on this list will readily provide information. >>

Hello Yves and John,

        Thanks for bringing up the question of paper negatives and
for opening up the discussion.
For the past several years I have been studying how photographs were
made during the time of Calotypy (1840-60). During this period, the
earliest years of Photography, pictures were made either on polished
silver-coated copper plates, or on high-quality drawing paper. The
first process, the Daguerreotype, was given to the world freely as a
gift of the French government and saw great popularity in the United
States. The second process is the basis for the negative-positive
process we have used until recently: first, the "calotype," or
"Talbottype," the negative form which was patented for its first
decade by its inventor, keeping its use from the general public.
Nonetheless, French artists obtained instructions and immediately
began making substantial improvements including one of the most
important: Gustave LeGray's dry waxed paper process. The second part
of the process, the positive, began with the simple salted paper
print, developing through a number of metallic toners and coatings,
to the current stock of rag paper- and plastic sheeting-based silver
gelatin materials.
        It is the Calotype (paper negative) process that I have been
working in for several years.
        Effects from the soft-focus of Pictorialism to the glass
plate sharpness of Le Mission Heliographique are available using the
Calotype process.
        I would be delighted if this important historic process were discussed.

Christopher Wright/
        www.visionsinsilver.com

At 6:13 PM -0500 12/12/05, Grafist@aol.com wrote:
>
>In a message dated 12/12/2005 15:53:12 GMT Standard Time,
>gauvreau-yves@sympatico.ca writes:
>
>Hi,
>
>I have seen a few time that paper negative can be and are used to
>make prints. I said prints because I assume they can be used with
>most if not all process. I'd like to know a bit more on this subject
>like what kind of "qualities" the paper must have and all other
>useful stuff you may think of.
>
>Thanks
>Yves
>
>.................................................................
>Hello Yves, If you are still using wet paper development
>i.e.chemical solutions in trays with silver gelatine emulsion paper,
>try making a print from a digital NEGATIVE on paper and contacting
>it with something like Ilford Multigrade. The best exposure for
>your desire must be acertained by trial under a low wattage lamp.
>Cover the contacted paper with black card and make a series of one
>second exposures by moving the card, step by step, accross the
>paper thus giving bands of increased density after normal
>development.
> This would be a start for you to discover some of the
>answers to the questions in your posting. Also search for work by
>Jose Ortiz Echague on Google. He almost exclusively used paper
>negatives to make his Direct Carbon (Carbondir or Fresson prints).
> Hoping this will open up a whole new field
>of interest. There are other ways of making paper negatives
>for which, I feel sure, others on this list will readily
>provide information.
> Best wishes. John Grocott- Photographist.
>
Received on Tue Dec 13 11:21:12 2005