I found a brief news item about the Monochrome Society in the April 1993
issue of the Photographic Journal. Membership costs 25 pounds and sae can
be sent to:
Dennis Fielding
523 Cwmbach Rd
Waunarlwydd
Swansea
Glam SA5 4TJ
WALES
The journal is edited by China Hamilton, who contributed an article on tin
toning to an issue of the BJP late last year. Hamilton referred to Mike
Ware's article on chrysotype, and his own article on toning, in the first
issue of the Monochrome Society Journal. It sounds like an interesting
publication, but the Photographic Journal item seemed to imply the Society
may want to remain small, and concentrate on personal exchanges.
Hamilton's argument regarding tin toning and permanence was interesting:
if I understand it correctly, because the main property of digital images
is their perfect reproducibility, it is now acceptable to use a very
impermanent process like tin toning, because you can transfer the results
into digital media, and continue copying to preserve the images forever.
Philip Jackson
pjackson@nla.gov.au