How-2 & ¥ THE WoRLD JOURNAL OF func agrinoat: reprinted August 2001 Post-Factory Photography Alternative Photography Until Now The most frequently asked question in a workshop is, what text should I buy? The an- swer is, um, its hard to say. THE FIRST SUMMER I aught gum printing I spent a month testing papers lights, stor- age, and a dozen other major de- tails, “proving” several important, indeed trail-blazing points. Only later did I realize my “findings” might not apply beyond alizarin crimson, the color I'd used because like platinum printing became itwas so strong and good-looking prominent. (I was also warned that T= ‘over the next decade 3 Les Procédés d’Art en Photographie “crooked” might attract the wrong confirmed the awful eruth by Puyo and Demachy sort.) Another term, “extended pho- Yes, Post-Factory ON THE INTERNET THEY call it alternative photog- raphy, although the conventional wisdom has it that a// silver- based media will soon be “alternative.” Academia likes the term Non-silver Photography (title of the course I taught), although some of the processes use ver, which maddens the lit- eral minded. 1 used to call it crooked photogra phy, in the sense of not semtight pho- ography, unil straight alternatives tography.” is so inclusive it seems or conditions can change all the {00 indlusive for our purposes; “las others, a major detail unmentioned & Annals of Gum Control: Part | sic’ and “handcoated” dont go far in the literature. The more I by Judy Scigel enough. learned, the more errors! found in 41 Real History of Photography, March, 1898: ut by any name, the print (and the more grateful I was strange bedfellows of this that I hadn't published sooner). 1 relatively new ph could also see why a beginner 21 Quantum Mechanic/Quantum Magic enon circle the globe, “Is Photography A Played-Out Profession? working from a book might give Profesor Bob Schramm does VDB from the fine-detail fends of plai up. saying, “Ie didnt come out.” 26 Drawing on the Right Side ofthe Computer um and palladium, and the view Not, I hasten to add, that these “al- with Carmen Lizardo $B Gamera virtuosos who stalk the wil ternative” media are any more dif- \Vandelous Blues and other Works of Art ficult or temperamental than fac- ‘ peared iy onpetome' John Metoyer atthe Platinum ‘Bi in room light, so theyre harder to 34 Analog Woman in Digital Hell @=4)3) fog: Butcveryone knows that cach 3 Negative Thinking: Sense & Sensitometry {factory film, paper, developer, and The “Cure,” The Ordered Negative ‘exposure method has its own rules, $ computer prints grow ever more winter mash, 42 As computer prints g ‘Answer Person ‘ : ‘photographic,” the desire co make ables of hand coating tend to be 44 Sources and Services labor-intensive photographs by 1 Be hing ignored. Worse yet, we lack anya (8 places where the experts hand grows ever more urgent. Prob- thortative body of knowledge a all fe pone ably. But for more reasons than | derness with hand-held computers, to the coat-it-with-2-broom acto: bats of the cyanorype mural, and the toy camera crowd who cant start a shoot until they tape up the light leaks in their Diana Continued page 2 - Continued page 2 This issue of The World Journal of Post-Factory Photography has been downloaded FREE of charge at www.AlternativePhotography.comALTERNATIVE PHorocrapHy Unti. Now ‘continued from previous page ‘odak used ro boast that it spent three million dollars a day on research, of .0 I've been told. The century's most important photo chemists worked there, writ- ing the centurys definitive texts. Which cen- ter of research spent a dollar a day on gum bichromate? Or for that matter, any process with no commercial or industrial value, from albumen, bromoil or carbon, to wet~platecol- lodion? Which is not to say that we lack bril liant, even heroic labors of invention and re invention, but that we lack the coordinated, in-depth, broad-front, state-of-the-art research and control that have delivered factory film and paper on, so-to-speak, a silver platter to our local camera store, consistent from batch to batch, with instructions right in the box and a vast, authoritative documentation on tap. The endless variables of post-factory pro- ‘esses are part of their magic, of riches poten~ tally ar beyond “kit” photography, but work- ing in solitary with so many options can be daunting areis the course or workshop that gives more than an introduction, while of the “fats” taught are simply wrong. There also remain large areas of the US, not to mention the world, where work- shops or classes in photography of any sort are ‘are. Some manuals are more helpful than oth- rs, but all have problems. Those that cover ‘many processes are frustratingly brief on each, with a tendency to include a number the “au thors” havenit done, in which case personal ex- pertise is sorely missed. Those on just one pro- «cess rend to reflect the limitations of one-per- son research, and the editors, ifany, can tell what's not clear (let alone what's wrong) be- cause they find all photography unclear. There is, in addition, a tendency to pass along un- tested formulas, which havea way of not work (for all sorts of reasons, such as absence of vintage impurities and changes in manufsc- ture). Even pretty good manuals tend to con- tradict one another, and, crowning irony, the better the book, the more rapidly it makes it- self obsolete by helping readers climb be- yond it. In other words, there is not yet a given body ‘of knowledge in “post factory” as there is in factory materials. Except for platinum/palla dium, which has had so much attention it’s irly well documented (maybe the cost of ma- terials focuses the mind), each learner must work out serious details for him or herself. The ‘experts have done this (although asa rule only for their particular approach), but they'e not generally the ones writing the manuals ‘As we chalk up gaps and errors in the “litera- ture,” my students declare (flattering the teacher), "you should write a book.” Pethaps cone day these pages will migrate into a book, but for now, the periodical format seems ideal, encouraging as it does the speculation, ampli- fication, correction and feedback evolving ar and-science require. ‘The “how-to” side of Post-Factory Photography will be, in fect, a series of interactive mini- texts. The “Y” side will comment on issues and ideas. (At present there is virtually no discourse in alternative photography beyond “we are so artisti!”) We have an enormous trove of in- formation, new and old, to stat. If you find mistakes or omissions, please write. Ifyou have amplifications or commentary please write, t00. Internet: Editor@Post-Factory.org, Post office: Post Factory Pres, 61 Morton St, New York, NY 10014, USA &, os te Yes, Post Factory ‘continued From previous page can tell, a wonderfully strong sense of reviv- ing and re-inventing the “lost” processes of the 19th century isin the air. Julia Margaret Cameron, dismissed by purists in the 1950s, is now a saint. When I tell students that she had a lens custom made to be bad, they un- derstand perfectly, and ask where to get one. “Terms like kallitype, gum bichromate and salted paper are once again heard in the land, «and the ingredients are available. (See "Sources and Services.”) A generation ago, pioneers of the hand-coated platinum revival acquired their chemicals only by cunning, perserverance and luck. Today a half dozen suppliers with 800 numbers are waiting to FedEx platinum and palladium salts in the lavor ofthe month, ‘The movement embracing all these minds methods and materials is probably undefin- able, but no matter. It all happens after the factory hence for the purposes ofthis publi its all post-factory photography. First and most fateful, the large corporations in faraway places whose factories have kept us in film, paper, and data sheets these 100 years have clearly pledged their toth to digital (and s0 have we in certain ways). Almost weekly some cherished factory-made photo supply is discontinued, pushing even laggards into the hand-made, or post-factory era. Cotage ine dustry returns, in other words, after the factory In addition, since the breakthrough of rule breaking in the 1970s, che term “alternative processes” has included the toning, hand-col- ‘ring, Sabattier effect, etch-bleach, reversal and other manipulations of factory paper ‘These effects, applied of course after the paper eaves the factory, and often contrary to factory intentions, will share authoritative attention P-F's pages hen there's a general sense in the pre- millennial ir that post” isin itself si icant, asin post-modernism, post- structuralism, and post-romanticism ~ what might be called a certain je me sais quot of the eeigest. But The World Journal of Post-Factory Photog- raphy will be more than just facts and formu- las; it will patrol the art-and-photography front, scanning the present in such depart- ments as The New York Review of Photo Books, Smart Quotes, and Critical Thinking, Equally important, it will celebrate past lives in first-person accounts having nothing to do with Alfred Stiegl. “How I Photographed ane,” and “Why Photographers Canit ‘Do Gum Printing” will appear among a wide range of extracts from the vintage photo press. ‘We have upcoming one of the most poignant: the 1913 story, "Goodwin Patent Upheld,” of hhow the inventor's widow finally gota settle- ‘ment from Kodak ... maybe. In this issue a cameo from 100 years ago asks, “Is Photogra- phy a Played-Out Profession?” ‘What the publication will nor be ison the Web, a format unconducive to coherent thought be- yond the 8-second data-bite. True, Web texts «can be downloaded and printed out, but Post- Factory is already printed out. The reader aan turn pages without waiting for designer tricksto download, read in bed, of walking the dog, write in the margins, browse at ease, flip chrough in both directions ~ in short, grasp content and order literally and figuratively. I hope you'll want to read every word See last page for subscription information. Judy Seige, Editor and PublisherWe simplify informa tion of no interest that thisperfectinsrument Supplies with such prolcy” "The final image can earn is artistic vali only through the wa in which the artis Iransforms i Act p pocessés ‘in Photog ra ph y ‘Coauthors Puyo and Demachy were eloquent, passionate and confident. Their introduction to Les Prooédés Art en Photographie, a marifesto of Pietorialism, is one of the gems of photo history. It also came wih complete instructions on how to tum photography (‘tubbom and untrthtul for aris’ ino art However, the 1906 orginal was (in the style ofits day) punctuated a random, seeded with non-sequiturs, and strewn with sentence fragments. We ‘are fortunate tha the Post-Factory translator has managed to preserve flavor, yet clay. Start on page 5. Post-Facrony #1 This issue of The World Journal of Post-Factory Photography has been downloaded FREE of charge at www.AlternativePhotography.com