Re: Calotype neg formulas
Philip Jackson (p.jackson@nla.gov.au)
Sat, 26 Mar 1994 09:52:12 +22304700 (EET)
I don't want to pre-empt Loren's literature search but I had a quick look
for formulas for producing calotype negatives, and found a few references
you might find useful: two accounts of contemporary photographers
experience in the Photographic Journal, vol. 121 (Dec. 1981), pp. 560-4
and vol. 129 (April 1989), pp. 196ff by Richard Morris and Darren Green
respectively. These two articles are a bit light on technical detail, but
state the process is quite difficult (hence the problems?) and paper
quality is very important. Richard Morris has conducted calotype
workshops, appropriately enough, at Lacock Abbey, and has done extensive
research on John Dillywn Llewelyn, whose wife was Talbot's first cousin.
I have a copy of Morris' 1980 Welsh Arts Council catalogue on Llewelyn,
which has a technical appendix. Unfortunately, however, Blackwell's (the
English booksellers) sent me the Welsh edition, which at the time I
thought was a great joke, but makes life a little frustrating when it
comes to deciphering the "Fformiwla Caloteip". I can recognise some
chemical names: "nitrad arian" and "ddwr distyll" are silver nitrate and
distilled water, but could somebody please look up the English edition:
Morris, Richard. John Dillwyn Llewelyn, 1810-1882: The First Photographer
in Wales. Cardiff: Welsh Arts Council, 1980. Make sure you get the
English ed. ISBN 0-905171-60-8, not the Welsh ISBN 0-9505171-61-6 !
According to Grace Seiberling, many amateurs had trouble with the
technical treatises and followed Dr. Hugh W. Diamond's "plain, simple,
rules" published in Notes and Queries in 1852 and 1853: "Photography
Applied to Archaeology and Practised in the Open Air" vol. 6 (18 Sept.
1852), p. 276ff and succeeding issues and "On the Simplicity of the
Calotype Process" vol. 8 (17 Dec. 1853), p. 597ff.
I also found a reference to a recent thesis with a practical orientation:
Margaret Klein Garri. Calotype Photography: A Process-Product Continuum.
Columbia University Teacher's College, 1984. UMI AAC8505363. The abstract
is reprinted in History of Photography vol. 15 (Winter 1991), pp. 324-5.
Hope this helps. Let us know how you get on.
Philip Jackson
pjackson@nla.gov.au