The Library of Congress has a cool guide to photographic printing processes used in the making of the works in its Prints and Photographs Division.

There are many high resolution images on line (more than one million of the 19 million). You can spend a lot of time scanning the collection.

I don’t mind my tax dollars supporting this effort. In fact, I think it’s pretty cool.

I’ve been taking the Alternative Photographic Processes class at the Academy of Art, from Maureen Delaney,  in San Francisco this semester – in pursuit (part time) of my BFA in photography. My final project is a small essay printed in polymer gravure.

As I was moving an inked plate to my Takach Floor Etching Press, I forgot “How do I move the moistened Ruscombe Mills Margaux paper to the press without fouling the paper with ink from my hands?”

The answer is enormously trivial, but profoundly useful. Folded in half playing cards. I learned this (forgot, then remembered) in the workshop with Jon Goodman on copper plate photogravure. Near the two presses were folded Bicycle playing cards. You grab two with your inked hands, lift the plastic sheet keeping the paper moist, slide a card into the stack to grab a single sheet, and lift and grab with other card and move to the press.

The plastic coated cards do not get wet from the paper. They are very thin and tough. When you fold them in half, they retain a springiness that make them like BBQ tongs when you grab the paper.

Sometimes solutions to a problem in photography are cheap and simple. And in retrospect, obvious.

While teaching a platinum printing with digital negatives class with Kim Weston this weekend I mentioned that the bible for the process is Dick Arentz’s recently out-of-print book Platinum and Palladium Printing, Second Edition. My friend, Ken, was helping out and while we were talking went to order the book on Amazon and remarked “That book is now going for $400.”

I had mentioned before that alternative process texts go out of print. Once out of print, the prices for formerly small edition runs can sky rocket. Mike Ware’s Cyanotype: The History, Science and Art of Photographic Printing in Prussian Blue has at least come down from $300 a copy on the used market to a more reasonable $150. Similarly the survey of new practitioners of alternative process, the well-written and illustrated Photography’s Antiquarian Avant-Garde: The New Wave in Old Processes, by Lyle Rexer, has come down to a more approachable $215 from a formerly higher price. Of course all of these prices are many times the original of under-$50-per-copy of my purchases while in print.

For instructive texts, I hope that alternative methods of delivery (eBooks) will breathe new life into recently out of print works and make them available to the practitioner. But call me old fashioned, I like to have some books at ready in hard copy as I consider a new process. Many eBooks present poor images (or eliminate plates entirely) in eBook form compared to their hard copy brethren. The illustrations are often necessary to understand a technique. Well-rendered examples in print of how an image should look (as in Arentz’s book) level set one’s expectations of a process if in lonely pursuit.

We had time to explore the New Cyanotype method created by Mike Ware – a process that can yield a tonal range and subtlety of a platinum print – albeit in Prussian Blue.

The workshop takes place at Edward Weston’s house on Wildcat Hill. This place is so inspirational. The original darkroom remains. There are many examples of Kim’s work, Edward’s and others in the gallery and around the house. I always come away from a visit there charged up to tackle photography anew.

There are still spaces available in the class. Contact Gina Weston if you are interested.

I, of course, go for Gina’s phenomenal spaghetti dinner Saturday nite! One of the best kept secrets in Carmel.

I came by today as part of my month of taking stock and thinking about photography and printing. Mark Pinsukanjana and Bryan Yedinak have created an inviting space where you can meet the artists at openings, or quietly come by like I did today to view some portfolios. Modernbook represents 30 photographers, both emerging artists and established ones like Jerry Uelsmann and Maggie Taylor.

I started with Brigitte Carnochan’s new work titled Floating World. Dreamlike montages using multiple images with calligraphy inspired by classic Japanese poems. The images are printed on Japanese Kozo (mulberry) paper and include the poem on a label on back of the mat.

I then went on to Charles Grogg’s stitched photographs. Mark and Bryan were describing the work. Images individually printed in segmented panels of Gampi paper, then stitched together to create the complete image. The effect is visually attractive. Charles Grogg is one of the two artists in the next exhibition with a reception on February 5.

Sara Friedlander’s Bound and Determined series is on display in the current group show until February. Photographs taken of Chinese women in 1983 inspired her first mixed media efforts in 1999. The women photographed were subjects of foot binding – constraining the size of a woman’s feet to achieve a small foot aesthetic/fetish. Practiced since the T’ang dynasty, it was outlawed by the Nationalists in 1911, and then again by the Communists in 1949. The quiet dignity of the women seem to show a triumph of humanity over mutilation.

Brent Townsend’s work is intriguing. Brent’s large work, Lake Bohinj, work fills one wall – each of the four panels measures 36″ by 48″. The chromogenic work is brilliantly colored – and starkly mounted on aluminum panels. The image is part of his Lookup Up series which stitches together several fish-eye views which is then transformed into a new projection. The images are normally available as large single prints. But the huge four panel piece demands attention and inspection and draws you in to a more immersive experience.

I finished with a return to Maggie Taylor’s Alice in Wonderland portfolio. Using Photoshop to digitally collage scanned elements of vintage photographs and objects, her work is whimsical, dreamy, disturbing and wondrous. I met Maggie at her opening that coincided with her publication of her book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Modernbook. The image of Alice sleeping, surrounded by 52 cards from a vintage playing deck, was created by individually scanning each card and carefully compositing and manipulating the elements to form the fluid and beautiful swirling final image. Featuring all new illustrations by Maggie to the classic text, the book is part of Modernbook Editions – the publishing side of Modernbook.

Modernbook Editions are exquisitely printed in small runs, available as a book alone or in limited editions with a print. Their upcoming book is The Mind’s Eye: Fifty Years of Photographs by Jerry Uelsmann. At an introductory limited to 100 edition release of the book, printed in duotone and accompanied by a silver gelatin print of The Poet’s House. At a pre-sale price of $500.00, it is slightly more affordable compared to the forthcoming 21st Photography retrospective limited edition of Jerry Uelsmann’s work.

When shooting a still life in the studio with strobes, I was trying to get the back lighting perfect on the glass in the image at top. While I could’ve adjusted the light and ran and looked through the viewfinder (old school) or on the LCD screen of my Canon 5D Mark II, it would be a lot of running back and forth. I have been shooting several of my still lives with my camera tethered via USB to my laptop – but I almost yanked my camera to the ground once carrying my laptop around as a viewer.

Enter onOne Software DSLR Camera Remote – an iPhone remote DSLR control application. It is way cool.

It comes in two versions: regular and Pro. I bought the pro version for $19.99 and I am not sure what the differences are between the two – I had to shoot a homework assignment quickly and I didn’t have time to figure this out. There are two pieces to the product, the server that runs on your computer (my 15″ MacBook Pro in this case) and the iPhone app. Once you connect a supported camera via a USB cable to your computer and start the server, you connect the iPhone app to the server over the local 802.11 wireless network.

The iPhone app controls most (if not all) the functions of the camera remotely. In its basic mode you use it as a remote shutter control and the image taken appears on the iPhone screen in a couple seconds. You can zoom in on the image and check details. My assignment went much more quickly as I was able to adjust the backlight on the translucent plastic backdrop and fire the shutter toe see if the position was correct. All this without running back to the camera to check the light position.

It was like having an assistant (me) adjusting the equipment as I directed myself from the camera’s viewpoint. Brilliant.

If I wasn’t so rushed that night I would’ve noticed that DSLR Camera Remote supports LiveView Mode which (while a little jerky in updates) would’ve sped up my adjustments even more. The only irritating aspect of the software is when firing the camera remotely you can queue up a few exposures that take a long time to fire (given the lag of the software transferring the image to the iPhone). Maybe there is a workaround to this – but it is minor considering the coolness of the app. I suspect I will be using this much more in the future.

I have been scouring Biblio.com and Amazon.com used book marketplace for original texts on what are today alternative photographic processes. I have by far the most success on Biblio.com which allows restricting an advanced search to a range of publication date (and sorting by price – descending from the highest is too often how I find what I am looking for).

One item I saw referenced early on when looking for information on the cyanotype process was The “Blue Print” and Its Variations, an issue of the periodical The Photo-Miniature: A Monthly Magazine of Photographic Information. For an early, and seemingly influential, magazine published from 1899 to 1935 by Tennant and Ward in New York City, it seems a bit difficult to find out much about its author and the magazine history itself.

I bought the one copy I could find of the cyanotype issue, Volume 1, No. 10 from January 1900 on Biblio.com. As I curled up reading it I discovered that the sheet for pages 489-490 was missing. Unfortunately those were the key pages describing the various formulations of the emulsion. I recently found a bound set of Volume 1 issues on Biblio.com – less the covers and much of the advertisements. Now I was complete.

I love reading these historic texts. For instance, one does sit here today and wonder why cyanotypes are not more broadly used both by current alternative practitioners and early practitioners. It is after all one of the first methods of permanently fixing an image to paper. The issue starts with the line:

The indifference of the photographic world to the ” blue print” is one of the seven wonders of that little world.

So even in 1900 people wondered why. Tennant argues over a few pages why the practicing photographer should reconsider their position with regards to cyanotypes:

But in spite of the simplicity of the ‘blue’ process, there is still just sufficient of the possibility of failure to emphasize, at every stage, what is meant by photographic carefulness, photographic cleanliness, and photographic thoroughness. The comparative harmlessness of the chemicals employed, their slight cost, as well as the variety and extent of the applications of the process, combine to recommend it as an ideal introduction to photography. (Himes)

The text goes quickly to formulas and variations around the basic process, paper choice, sizing, exposure, and toning. You’ll want to Google around for tools to convert grains and drams and such to modern measures.

It was my intent to scan and post the issue for use by others, delayed by the missing pages. In poking around I did find a partial copy (less some adverts) on the web last nite. I had already scanned my copies with Adobe Acrobat Pro and converted to a searchable PDF format (using their included Optical Character Recognition option on conversion). I have posted a large (69MB color version) that is hi-res and can be zoomed in on various browsers and PDF display tools. A smaller version works well with Adobe Acrobat. The scanning is tedious, but I was pleasantly surprised at how simple it was and how Adobe Acrobat created searchable and selectable text from the scans.

I love the advertisements in these old periodicals. And glimpses into the photographic world of the past.

I briefly reviewed Copper Plate Photogravure: Demystifying the Process a few weeks back. It is still in print, and available on Amazon.com at the time of this writing. A second very useful text is available on the used market, Gary Kolb’s Photogravure: A Process Handbook.

Kolb’s Chapter 1 crisply, tautly summarizes the photogravure process. He makes the point that while you can think of photogravure as a close analog to silver processes in its ability to reproduce continuous tone, he states “The essential qualities of the etching process are important to an understanding of the aesthetic of gravure.” A simple statement that Jon Goodman touched on during the workshop I took with my son. Kolb also notes “The process is involved and unforgiving.” You have been warned.

I think you can safely ignore silver plating copper plates in Chapter 3, which avoids the use of potassium cyanide. You’re going to use a dichromate in the process – why tempt fate further?

Each chapter describes a step in detail, for example Chapter 4 covering the preparation and sensitization of the resist. This is a pretty common step in texts, though I want to note one minor issue with the Morrish text. On page 25 the authors state to avoid Lexan as the drying surface for the sensitized resist. Goodman uses Lexan in his studio. Again, minor.

At the end of each chapter is a summary that should prove useful to remind the practitioner of the basic steps (Jon made a one page cheat sheet for me to jog my memory as I solo’ed in the workshop). Kolb goes into detail on rosin dusting of the plate (material left for the appendix in Morrish’s text). In for a penny, in for a pound at this point. I do not see why you would not classically aquatint the plate in this process.

Kolb discusses the McGraw Colorgraph Co.’s single bath etching method, but recommends a modified approach with a single bath augmented with one or more different dilutions of Ferric Chloride.

Kolb’s text is solid, and a useful addition to get another perspective on the process. Another text I tracked down on the used market is Deli Sacilotto’s Photographic Printmaking Techniques. Jonathan Clark of Artichoke Press mentioned this text to me during my visit to his studio. While the book touches on other photographic printing processes it focuses on photo-etching and photogravure, clearly the author’s passion.

Sacilotto begins with an introductory History of Photographic Printmaking. Today, Chapter Two can be usefully pulled into the history chapter as it describes using traditional film materials for making the positive. Jon Goodman’s dry response to my query before the workshop on whether we would be using traditional film of “Brian, this is the 21st century we print on film with an Epson printer.” Best 21st century retort I’ve gotten. What makes this text useful on top of the other two books is the description of the dry laydown method similar to that of Goodman’s for adhering the exposed gelatin resist to the copper plate.

Of course, Herbert Denison’s A Treatise on Photogravure is the classic historical text. Reprinted by the Visual Studies Workshop in 1974, it is hard to find a copy of the reprint, never mind an original text (with a photogravure example at the start of the book. Goodman says at least two versions of the original exist with different images tipped in). Luckily the text is out of copyright and a good scan is hosted in a variety of formats on Archive.org. This is almost a compelling reason to buy that Kindle DX with its simple support for PDFs.

I wanted to remind readers that some Crown Point Press Magical Secret books include a DVD on inking and printing the plate (along with an appendix describing the process in text). The DVD is invaluable to grasping the basics of inking and wiping an etched plate.

Charles Gatewood started me on the path of photography, and has accompanied and encouraged me along the way. But that’s another story. Over that time, Charles has talked about his long and varied career. While known today for his pioneering look at the sexual underground and fetish scene starting with the early ’70′s in New York to now. His photographs illustrated the early bible of the alternative scene Modern Primitives. But in the ’70′s he produced with William S. Burroughs the book Sidetripping, a look at the counterculture of the ’60′s and ’70′s.  A.D. Coleman, the first photography critic for the New York Times, wrote “Gatewood’s world is freakish, earthy, blunt, erotic – most of all, terribly and beautifully alive.”  His prescient Wall St. is a formal study of the desolation of New York’s financial capital.

Before all this there was Bob Dylan.

1964, Charles hit Europe, bought a camera and got a gig with Text and Bilder, Sweden’s largest photo agency. Gatewood apprenticed with photojournalists on the beat in Stockholm. Photographing Martin Luther King receiving an award, Charles was disappointed with the results. It was on April 29, 1966 that Charles shot his first images that sang – and they were of Bob Dylan.

Of the same age, from the same country – Charles leaving his graduate program in Anthropology in Sweden, pursuing photography. Dylan talking of change (and shocking his fan base when he went electric). Charles a complete unknown, Dylan not long ago one.

Dana Smith and Charles Gatewood have put together a book, A Complete Unknown, presenting Gatewood’s photos of Dylan at that time. The book is exquisitely hand printed and bound – it is less a book and more a fine bound portfolio of prints. Dana and Charles showed me a proof copy. It is certainly a joy to hold. Large, luscious, and beautiful.

Charles hit it big with his Dylan images, one of which saw worldwide circulation. On returning to the US, he began to document the counterculture of the ’60′s. While working on his edgy material for which he became known, he also became a photographer for Rolling Stone and other magazines of the time. This body of work is the subject of his current exhibition Celebrity! at Robert Tat Gallery on 49 Geary St. in San Francisco. You can see a copy of A Complete Unknown there, or you can contact Dana Smith.

During the release of Gatewood’s latest book, we were of course treated to the spectacle of Bob Dylan being questioned by police in New Jersey who had no idea who he was. A beautifully ironic coincidence. You seriously can’t make this stuff up!

I remarked to Jon during the first couple days of the workshop that at least his approach to photogravure was simple. I think I need to describe a bit what that means.

We had no failures of gelatin development, or etching. His two bath method of etching was straightforward. Attaching the gelatin resist to the polished plate with a photo mangle was straightforward. We inked the plates and printed the images on his American French Tool Co. etching press.

Stepping back from my comment that it was simpler than I expected, let’s summarize the steps.

First, you generate a digital positive that is your fully prepped image for exposing the gelatin resist. Jon uses a method related to Ron Reeder’s approach I believe, printing the positive with his custom profile for Quad Tone RIP to achieve the density range needed for the process. It seemed straightforward.

Second, you basically make a carbon print using a Potassium Dichromate sensitized pigmented gelatin sheet, in this case Autotype G35 (now discontinued). Potassium Dichromate is the most dangerous chemical encountered in the process and bears a great deal of respect. Sandwiched with the digital positive (positive emulsion to sensitized gelatin with a 1 mil Mylar sheet protecting the gelatin from the ink jet pigments), the assemblage is placed in a vacuum frame and exposed with a UV light.  The positive is masked to block non-image areas from exposure. Jon has developed a “dry laydown” method to affix the exposed gelatin to a highly polished and degreased copper plate pressing the gelatin to the plate running it through a “photo mangler”. The carbon print is developed in water, gently. Dry it completely.

At this point I want to pause and observe that while I said the process is simpler than I expected, you essentially by this point must be skilled at producing full range digital positives (same approach as digital negatives), and you must be a skilled carbon printer. The art of the photogravure process is still to come as you transition now into traditional etching and printmaking.

Third, you apply an aquatint to the plate with rosin in a dustbox. I think there is a qualitative visual difference  of a print made from a dust-grain aquatint and one made from a screened plate. The dust grains are non-uniform and settle in a random pattern. While stochastic screens overcome the problems with anything like a halftone screen, the dust-grain aquatint method probably yields a more random screening effect. Why someone, given the time it takes to do this process and the beauty of the classic dust grain approach, would use a film screen for copper plate is beyond me. It seems odd to cut corners at this point. Note carefully that Jon dusts the plate after the gelatin resist is on the plate. I’m under the impression this is controversial. Such a rebel. Melt the resist (Jon uses a temperature controlled oven, you can blow torch the underside of the plate also).

Fourth, a quick etching resist with asphaltum is done on the non-image areas of the plate.

Fifth, you take the plate, with aquatint and the adhered gelatin resist and etch it in Ferric Chloride. Glove up, and wear an apron or an old shirt. Jon has settled on a two bath method, with Ferric Chloride and different densities. The lower Baumé solution is introduced periodically to accelerate the etching. Etching during the workshop took 28 – 42 minutes. I etched four plates, my son two, and the other student two. No foul bite, I had a small scratch on one resist that came into the plate. Can be later retouched. Once the plate is etched, clean with mineral spirits and water to remove the asphaltum and the gelatin.

The final step is inking and printing the plate. And now we have transitioned completely from photography into the pure printmaking world. Paper is dampened a few hours before printing and placed in a plastic bag. Jon’s method for wetting the paper is simple: draw a hot bath of water in a tray and slide the paper through front to back and place on an inclined plastic sheet to drain off excess water. This is best done the night before. Crown Point Press books describe dampening paper for etching also. The plates themselves are trimmed to a 5mm border all around, and the edges smoothed with a file to have a easily cleaned smooth surface and to protect tearing the paper or worse the felts on the press. Inking is done with a rubber or polyurethane brayer, on a heated plate, warm but not hot to touch. Jon cleans excess ink off the plate with a cheesecloth – not a tarlatan (European methods being gentler). Hand wiping is the final step, light broad, quick strokes with the heel of your hand towards you to take off ink. Jon reinforces the dark areas holding the plate in

My son, Nikolai, printed an image of mine (an underwater figure study) with the a la poupée technique to produce a multicolored print. He also etched a positive of a painting he had done – no photograph involved here – to make a fine etching. I think it was the most beautiful print we made in the workshop.

You can find another write-up on Jon Goodman’s workshop from Clay Harmon, on Jon’s website.

So, I glossed over the inking and printing of the plate. Why? Because to tell you the truth, at the end this is wear the rubber definitely hits the road. I inked and printed one of my plates three times. Nik tried a couple prints on his plates. Jon then took the time to demonstrate inking and printing with our plates and the difference in the final prints was astounding. So, while I thought “This is simpler than I expected.” I came to a more visceral understanding of the depth of this process and its capabilities watching Jon demonstrate making a print. If one pursues this process, you can open up a lifetime of exploration, and keep yourself happily distracted as you learn more about each step.

I’m going to avoid more details of the workshop for a couple reasons. One, Jon gives these workshops and shares his experience and methods during them. I highly recommend talking to Jon about a forthcoming workshop. Two, additional details would suggest that this process is a matter of a couple bottles of mordant at the right Baumé, etch for some time, ink and print. There is a tremendous capability for personal expression at several points in this process, and therein lies the lifelong challenge.

Jon Goodman is a master of his craft. It was great to study with him and see him in action. He brings an intensity to bear on his art that is inspiring.

Did I mention he makes his own inks? Let me leave you with that.