mercredi 13 octobre 2004

Cyanotype "blueprint" alternative Simple is satisfying... I've enthused a couple of times in the past week in favour of doing it yourself. There is much to be learned and gained from using a simple camera - simple being manual rather than an all-singing, all-dancing, auto-everything model. The former are not hard to find... many camera shops will have a selection languishing on a back-shelf unnoticed by the general public. Now is the time to buy one of these overlooked, underpriced but perfectly specified cast-offs. The prices for many of them are so low you cannot lose money... and if the digital revolution is ever rejected by a small but significant number of photographers, whose creativity has been unfulfilled by total automation of the craft by computer software, then prices can only rise significantly... because there are not many manufacturers prepared, or able, to return to supplying metal, mechanical, manual and, intriguingly sometimes, meterless cameras. The market for many Leica screw and most Leica M-series cameras has always been strong because of their unique handling characteristics, near-silent operation, build-quality and optical sublimity of their lenses. The Nikon F and F2 systems also command high respect from users... and so do to a lesser extent Pentax M-42 screw, Nikkormat, Minolta SRT and original Canon F-1 models. Whilst it's fair to say that Japanese made cameras don't have the same cachet with collectors, that leaves a good supply for photographers who want the combination of art, craft and science at their fingertips and are able to use these types of cameras with more adeptness and skill than most of the so-called "idiot-proof" cameras available today allow you to do. Anecdotally, a friend visiting from the UK recently (we have more than 75 years of professional photography practice between us) though it easier and quicker to shoot digitally some of the items I was putting up for sale on eBay. Using a simple white background set-up and diffused outdoor light we attached his Camedia, or whatever - but a digital camera of some sort - to a tripod, framed the first item and... well, he pressed various buttons and for a while scrolled through a selection of menus in different order combinations. So we scratched our heads, I sat down with a glass of liquid fermented grape, Mart muttered a few Jewish oaths which I didn't understand, I got fed up and asked for the instruction book... to which Mart said there wasn't one... or rather there was but in the form of a CD. So, he fired up his laptop, inserted aforementioned CD, scrolled through various menus and pages until we had some basic info... all of which took something like an hour... or the time it would have taken to shoot a film on a metal, mechanical, manual and probably meterless camera and, at a pinch, developed and dried the negatives ready for scanning. And we still hadn't taken a single shot! Cynique... moi? Bof! So much for progress! Photographic processing gets like that sometimes too... there are days when I've had enough of the mindless repetition of black-and-white processing and printing. After I'd contact printed more than a hundred films a few days ago I started to think more seriously about digital and its advantages of instant image retrieval, storage, manipulation, printing, file transmission to the picture library I use in the UK, etc... but I usually click back into traditional mode after a coffee in the bar of the Hôtel de l'Espérance on the corner of the street. For photographic relaxation I go not to the "traditional" processes but to the "alternative" ones... the printing processes invented and used largely in the Victorian era. The easiest to use, as well as being one of the most stable, is the iron-based cyanotype "blueprint" process. Invented by Sir John Herschel in 1842, printing of a cyanotype doesn't even require a darkroom - although a darkened room is necessary for the initial coating of the paper support with sensitising solution. Without being technical... the process depends on reduction of ferric salts to a ferrous state with ultra-violet light. Put simply, after coating a piece of paper with the premixed chemistry, it is dried, then exposed for a few minutes in contact with a film negative to a high UV source such as the sun or a facial-tanning lamp. Processing is even simpler... washing the reduced salts out of the paper under the tap reveals a striking blue image. If the thought of coating paper with a sensitised chemical is off-putting don't let it be... like gardening or other enjoyable practical activities it is very satisfying. Paper coating can be done in an artistic fashion with a paintbrush or more mechanically with a glass rod by pulling and pushing a few drops of the solution across the paper surface so spreading it by capillary action. Obviously there is slightly more to the process than that, but there's not that much more to it for the beginner to experience with this beautiful alternative process. A Google search for "cyanotype" will point you in several good directions with many excellent galleries of images to enthuse over. I love the colours and tones of cyanotypes because they feel so French... they remind me of the Charente-Maritime, the western department of France so influenced by sea and sky... colours through the intense azure sky to the bird-egg blue window shutters which are only opened morning and evening here in the more central Indre-et-Loire department where I live... when it's too hot, or too cold, they're always closed. I can't feel moody with a blue image in front of me... I find the colour very alive and dynamic, full of zip sometimes yet calm at others. It has always been my favourite colour... I wear it most of the time, it's the colour of my eyes, it's the classic colour for a Bugatti of Renault-Alpine rally car, it's the background colour of my iMac, it's my favourite colour of postage stamp... which reminds me of a good photo knowledge poser I've never heard asked. Question - Name the most expensive cyanotype ever sold? Answer - The threepenny value of the Mafeking Siege stamp printed by Dr.D.Taylor and issued in 9/11th April 1900. Of the few sheets produced, which depict the bust of General Baden-Powell, one sheet was accidentally printed in reverse - a not uncommon mistake because it was essentially a photographic process using a negative. However, the few extremely rare unused examples, if offered for sale, would fetch maybe $25,000... and for a reversed stamp to be offered "used on cover" the price would be around $50,000. On a more down to earth note you can buy one of my cyanotypes such as "Les Arrosoirs" (watering cans), shown above, for a less intimidating $50. 9:44:23 PM    comment []