For anyone interested, The Centre for Photographic Conservation is
presenting a course entitled _Rediscovering Historic Photographic
Processes_ this August 8th - 12th, 1994. The fee for the 5-day course is
360 pounds sterling plus V.A.T. (whatever that is). More information can
be had from:
The Centre for Photographic Conservation, 233 Stansted Road, Forest Hill,
London SE23 1HU, United Kingdom. Telephone 081-690-3678; Fax 081-314-1940.
They do mention the course will cover photogenic drawings, calotype,
salted paper prints, albumen prints and wet collodion negative and positive.
Keep those calotype references coming. I am also working on my
daguerreotype set-up. I have my fuming boxes, have ordered the plates,
and will pick up my plateholders tomorrow from the post office. I am in
the process of designing my mercury box and fumehood (not an easy task).
I will probably try the non-toxic Becquerel process first.
Yours,
Loren C. Pigniolo | voice/fax: 415/665-1827
Photographic Preservation Specialist | voice: 800/484-9808 x7841
Photographic Preservation Services | i/net: lorenp@netcom.com
1044 Judah Street #1 San Francisco, CA 94122-2052 | Please call before faxing
Documents on photographic preservation and a list of our services are
available via anonymous ftp to netcom.com in the directory pub/PPS-info
On Sat, 26 Mar 1994, Philip Jackson wrote:
> 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
>
>