Re: Bromoil Print

nadeaul@nbnet.nb.ca
Mon, 9 Jan 1995 20:05:00 +0300

>Hello,
>
>I am looking for information about Bromoil Prints.
>
>Thanks in advance,
> Henk Thijs.

I noticed that your return address says .be, for Belgium.

You probably know that the Belgian L=E9onard Misonne was the best known
exponent of the *OIL* process, from which bromoil is based. The only
original Misonne I saw was shown to me by the late Jos=E9 Ortiz Echag=FCe, i=
n
Madrid. It was superb. Ortiz himself thought that Misonne was the greatest
pictorialist of all time. He may have been right. I have not studied enough
originals to know definitely at this point. I enjoyed many Robert Demachys
at the BN in Paris though.

Around 1985 I wrote _History and Practice of Oil and Bromoil Processes_
More recently (1992), it was updated and translated into German by Klaus
Pollmeier (a former student of mine) as _Geschichte und Praxis des Oil-und
Bromoldruckes_ (H. Lindemann, Stuttgart). I was surprised that they would
be interested in publishing my bromoil book before my platinum book, which
is much more popular in most other countries. I understand that oil and
bromoil are the "rage" in Germany these days.

Klaus Pollmeier also runs a small outfit that provides alternative photo
supplies: Fine Print Studios, M=FClhenfeld 43, D-45470 M=FClheim a. d Ruhr,
Germany.

I have said it many times before in my books and lectures, and I'll repeat
it here again today, oil & bromoil processes (especially the transfer
technique) are the most underestimated of alternative processes. The
problem is that it is quite a bit more difficult to learn than say,
platinum. The need for a good instructor/ workshop is more important with
pigment processes than for other techniques. The only master I know of in
North America, is David Lewis, in Ontario. He sure knows what he is doing.
He is still a "young" man, in his 40s I think, and if I didn't already have
the Fresson process sitting here (grossly underutilized I might add) I'd be
studying with him to learn oil and bromoil transfer.

Luis Nadeau