As some of you know, I have an interest in alternative photographic processes. Alternative processes can be loosely defined as processes that form images without the use of silver salts and that involve contact printing. This group of processes are sometime also characterized as “historical” since most of them date from the late nineteenth century during the period in which modern photography was first developed.
In the main, I stick with making cyanotypes one of the easiest alternative processes to master; examples of my work in cyanotype can be found on my main web site.
Additionally, I have experimented a bit with making gum bichromate prints as well. However, despite their inherent beauty, I have pretty much given up on gum prints because the chromate compounds needed are toxic and very “un-green” in the environmental sense.
Thus, I was intrigued to read an article describing a “‘new” method called the “ferric gum process” at one of the web sites I peruse on occasion (i.e. Alternative Photography.com). Over the past week or so, I have spent a bit of time experimenting with this technique and have found that it lives up to its billing… it is an interesting but still imperfect process.
I have posted the details of my experiments on the discussion board at alternativephotography.com and so will not repeat them here.
UPDATE (17 Dec 2017): It turns out that the record of the original discussion at alternativephotography.com was lost at some point when they switched discussion software. Fortunately, I had printed out most (all?) of the discussion for my records. I have scanned these paper copies and have added them here as thee pdf files: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. While not a perfect replacement for the original, it is the best we have.
Rather, I’ll just show scans of my best efforts to date:
[nggallery id=33]
Clearly, these images are not perfect and much work will be needed to perfect the process. I hope to play a part in this, along with Michael and Peter (see the link, above, to the on-line discussion). The combination of art and chemistry really hits a soft spot in my heart!
I’ll post more both here and on the message board at alternatephotography.com when I have new results to share.
