1st Edition

The Handmade Silver Gelatin Emulsion Print Creating Your Own Liquid Emulsions for Black & White Paper

By Denise Ross Copyright 2019
    314 Pages
    by Routledge

    314 Pages
    by Routledge

    The Handmade Silver Gelatin Emulsion Print is a cookbook of simple, basic recipes for making black and white printing paper and paper negatives, along with creative options for printing, toning, and coloring. Author Denise Ross draws from photographic literature from the last 135 years, adapting old recipes to fit modern tools, materials, and work spaces and modern twists have been applied to traditional techniques.

    The book is divided into three sections: Section One lays the groundwork for this unique alternative process; Section Two provides the recipes; Section Three highlights contemporary silver gelatin artists.

    The book features over 200 full-color images and covers key topics including:

    Vocabulary: a list of terms used by traditional photographers and emulsion makers

    • Creating work spaces with the right tools and materials
    • Basic emulsion chemistry and paper coating techniques
    • Working with various negative options, analog and digital
    • Gaslight chloride contact printing paper
    • Kodabromide-type chlorobromide all-purpose paper
    • Bromide enlarging paper
    • Warm tone paper and developers
    • Making and toning your own printing-out paper (POP)
    • Matte surface and baryta coating surface paper
    • Paper negatives and making hand-drawn and digital masks
    • Toning handmade paper
    • Gum printing over handmade paper
    • Troubleshooting handmade paper
    • Artists working with handmade paper

    The Handmade Silver Gelatin Emulsion Print is for photographers who love the look and creative potential of black and white traditional photography but who want more control over the process and the end product. It is written for the beginner to experienced photographer, with processes initially explained in such a way that anyone will feel comfortable getting started, as well as information in increasing levels of complexity so that experienced photographers who enjoy a challenge will also find one.

    Table of Contents

    Acknowledgements

    SECTION I—The Important Stuff Before the Recipes

    Chapter 1. Introduction

    Chapter 2. Vocabulary

    Chapter 3. The Darkroom

    Chapter 4. Materials

    Chapter 5. The Basics

    Chapter 6. Coating Paper

    Chapter 7. Troubleshooting Coating

    Chapter 8. Printing

    Chapter 9. Processing

    Chapter 10. Toning and Other Ways to Add Color

    SECTION II—The Recipes

    Chapter 11. Developers

    Chapter 12. Baryta Coating Surface

    Baryta Paper Coating

    Chapter 13 . Potassium Chloride (KCl) "Gaslight" Contact Printing Paper

    Chapter 14. Three Salts Contact Printing Paper

    Chapter 15. Chlorobromide (Kodabromide-Type) All-Purpose Paper

    Chapter 16. Bromide Paper for Enlarging and Contact Printing Paper

    Chapter 17. Gelatin-Chloride Printing-Out Paper (POP)

    Chapter 18. Paper Negatives


    SECTION III—The Contributors

    Chapter 19. Ian Andvaag

    Chapter 20. Radoslaw Brzozowski

    Chapter 21. Didier Derien

    Chapter 22. Edward Durrill

    Chapter 23. Cate Sampson

    Chapter 24. George L Smyth

    Bibliography

    Biography

    Denise Ross has been a photographer for over 30 years and has been at the forefront of the handmade silver gelatin renaissance. Combining her background in science, research, and love of traditional black and white photography, Ross has extensively researched and reverse-engineered historic emulsion formulas and techniques for contemporary use. Ross created The Light Farm in 2008, a teaching website devoted to handmade silver gelatin emulsions and published an accompanying book of the same name. Ross’s work has been exhibited nationally and has appeared in publications such as Photo Techniques, Large Format Photography, The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes, and Jill Enfields’s Guide to Photographic Alternative Processes. To see her work, visit www.thelightfarm.com

    An excellent introduction to the magical process of making your own silver gelatin emulsions and papers, full of practical advice and, most importantly it makes the process simple and understandable even to those with little or no darkroom experience.

    R. Brzozowski, Head Tutor of Tricity School of Photography