Re: Cyanotype & Ferric Oxalate & APIS 2006 & Retro-invention & Herschel

From: TERRYAKING@aol.com
Date: 02/15/06-02:24:38 PM Z
Message-id: <1b8.2493e04a.3124e806@aol.com>

In my reply to Loris about the sensitivity of cyanotype, I mentioned The
Object Glass of Science Conference at Oxford last September. I thought that it
might be helpful if I were to give some further background. You might also
like to think of coming to the APIS/Object Glass conference in Oxford in
September 2006. See the History pages on _www.hands-on-pictures.com_
(http://www.hands-on-pictures.com)
 
In my workshops over the years we have made a number of small 'what if'
experiments which eventually led to a programme retro-invention where we went
back to the time a photographic process was invented and took the knowledge and
materials of the time to see what would happen if we tried to do the inv
enting. We deliberately ignored subsequent publications.
 
The programme has included:asphaltum photography, which has led to a serious
reassessment of how 'the first photograph' was made; chrysotypes where we
arrived at simple and inexpensive method of making gold prints which we called
the chrysotype rex, and the cyanotype rex. We also arrived at platinum
prints which do not 'dry down', ie the albumen platinum print and the
collodioplatinum print. All these will be published as pdfs once we have the technology
straight together with some useful information on gum printing..
 
On working on the cyanotype rex we found that the exposures we were getting
were far shorter than one would have expected had we been using the standard
method. That was when we tried in camera photography using cyanotype rex. At
the time I was also working on the Herschel papers in the library of the
Royal Society, which has been concerned with science since the time of Charles
II, as I was interested in how Julia Margaret Cameron had learned how to make
collodion negatives and albumen prints.. In these papers was the draft of
Herschel's 1843 paper in which the iron processes, including the cyanotype,
were announced to the world. Michael Maunder had also been working on these
papers in relation to a series of articles he was writing in AG magazine which
everyone with a serious interest in photography should read. Herschel had
established that the iron processes achieved very short exposures without UV.
Although my work so far suggests that a somewhat longer exposure, although still
short, is needed to get a usable image. Taking our retro-invention work and
Michael's research together has led to a useful synergy.
 
Anybody who is in the vicinity may like to come to a lecture I am giving
next Wednesday at 'The Camera Club' in Kennington where there will be a small
exhibition. There is also a programme of hands-on workshops both at The Camera
Club and at my studio in Richmond.. I hope to be talking about these things
in Albany NY in the autumn and Pittsburgh in the spring of 2007. Earlier
stages in these developments have been covered at talks and conferences in
Austin Texas, Santa Monica and at the APIS conferences in Dunfermline in 2004 and
Santa Fe in 2005. People may also like to make a note that APIS 2008 will
take place in Bratislava.
 
A lot of this information is also available in editions of the
PhotoHistorian which are also still available.
 
Terry
 
 
Terry King FRPS

RPS Historical Group (Chairman)

_www.hands-on-pictures.com/_ (http://www.hands-on-pictures.com/)

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Received on Wed Feb 15 14:47:05 2006

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