Nanjing International Art Fair

A few pictures of the installation curated by HLiiC Gallery for the Nanjing International Art Fair. Appreciate the opportunity to participate and show several hand printed chryostype images from the Drape series. Images courtesy of Hengli Ge.

Analogue Forever Magazine

Thank you to Christina Z Anderson for selecting my good self to be amongst the 20 Alternative Process photographers to know in 2022 for Analogue Forever Magazine. Great story telling about how Christina has got to know each artist and their work.

Head on over to Analogue Forever Magazine to read the feature.

Advisor to the Lishui International Handmade Photography Centre

Congratulations to all involved in the conception and building of the new Lishui International Handmade Photography Centre in Lishui, Zhejiang, China. I am honoured and excited to be an Advisor to the Centre to share knowledge and expertise in a range of historical and alternative photographic printing processes, in particular Chrysotype and Salted Paper.

The ‘Ingenious and Lively’ Elizabeth Fulhame – the forerunner of photography

Scientific papers don’t usually provide insight into an author’s personality, however, Elizabeth Fulhame’s 1794 published Essay on Combustion[1] not only illustrates her scientific brilliance, but her sass as she openly challenged the 18th century patriarchy.

Elizabeth Fulhame is credited as a forerunner of photography, courtesy of inventing photoreduction, and with having discovered catalysis – where a substance is used to speed up a chemical reaction without being consumed by it.  

Fulhame’s achievements are the result of her experiments that investigated the reduction of metal salts, including gold, mercury, platinum, silver, copper and tin, using a number of reducing agents under the influence of water and sunlight. She exposed these on cloth in various states including in water, dry or with an ether or alcohol solution, and exposed the cloth to sunlight. In the context of photography, this became the first known example of photochemical imaging.[2] 

Her work occurred at a time when female scientists were rare and the contribution of women to science not openly embraced. She was critical of the patriarchal profession and not shy about expressing her views on this:

“It may appear presuming to some, that I should engage in pursuit of this nature … But censure is perhaps inevitable; for some are so ignorant, that they grow sullen and silent, and are chilled with horror at the sight of any thing, that bears the semblance of learnings, in whatever shape it may appear; and should the spectre appear in the shape of woman, the pangs, which they suffer, are truly dismal.”

While some commentators did experience the predicted ‘pangs’, Fulhame’s research was influential and acknowledged in early 19th-century scientific and photographic texts. Her publication went on to be translated into German in 1798 and republished in the United States of America by the Chemical Society of Philadelphia in 1810.

Fulhame’s photochemical discoveries were also acknowledged by Sir John Herschel in his 1839 presentation to the Royal Society on gold as a possible image-making substance. Her research finding about the necessity of moisture to facilitate the reduction of gold to form an image informed Herschel’s photographic experiments and his invention of the chrysotype gold printing process in 1842.

Elizabeth Fulhame’s work continues to inspire the production of photographic works in contemporary setting. Her research can be found here.

 [1] Fulhame, Mrs. (1794) An Essay on Combustion, with a view to a new art of dy[e]ing and painting: wherein the phlogistic and antiphlogistic hypotheses are proved erroneous. London: J. Cooper.

[2] Schaaf, Larry J. (1990). "The first fifty years of British photography, 1794-1844". In Pritchard, Michael (ed.). Technology and art: the birth and early years of photography : the proceedings of the Royal Photographic Historical Group conference 1-3 September 1989. Bath: RPS Historical Group. pp. 9–18

Reflections and Innovations, Contemporary Practices of Historical Photographic Processes

The catalogue comprises images that showcase the range of 19th century/ alternative photographic processes used by the exhibiting photographers to hand-print their images. Over 200 pages of images from photographers who invented photographic printing process and contemporary photographers who currently use these processes for their photographic expression. A video of the exhibition can be viewed here.

Reflections and Innovations, Contemporary Practices of Historical Processes, Lishui Art Museum

The 2021 Lishui Photography Festival in Zhejiang, China is open and I am honoured to be invited to participate in the Reflections and Innovations, Contemporary Practices of Historical Processes exhibition at the Lishui Art Museum, alongside photographers current and past that have inspired me in my photographic research and practice. Congratulations to Shen Zhonghai, Kong Nai and Hengli Ge on the expert curation of 129 photographer’s images.

Spotlight on Dr. Mike Ware

“Throughout history, this beautiful and paradoxical island has been a crossroads for the civilizations of classical antiquity. The fertile land has been periodically shattered by the violence of earthquake and volcano, leaving whole villages abandoned. A warm hearted and hospitable people are divided among themselves by the antitheses of catholicism and communism; of republicanism and feudalism. The undercurrents of nepotism and organised criminality are never far beneath the seemingly benign surface.”

Iconostasis, Chrysoroyatissa, Cyprus. 8"x10", new chrysotype print. © Mike Ware. 1993.

We have Dr. Mike Ware to thank for the creation of New Chrysotype, a gold photographic printing process that allows images to be produced in a range of monochromatic and split tone colours. Colours range from pink, red, violet, purple to blue, green, grey and black, with blue/ pink, purple/ blue and brownish/ mushroom colour split tones (amongst other split tones that practitioners have achieved).

Ware developed New Chrysotype over 1984–1994, and named it in honour of Sir John Herschel. For the last four decades, Ware has dedicated his time to the study of the science, history and art of alternative process photography, following an academic career in chemistry. Since then, he has substantially updated the cyanotype, chrysotype, argyrotype, and platino-palladiotype processes. The aim of his investigations has been to simplify and revitalise each technique.

These are now described in over 60 publications, including four books. Mike Ware has consulted for major museums and galleries, exhibited his personal photographic work, lectured, and conducted workshops worldwide. In 1990 he was awarded the Hood Medal of the Royal Photographic Society, and in 2016 received the Special Recognition of the American Institute for Conservation. http://www.mikeware.co.uk

Spotlight on Esme Ann Everingham

“When I started working in the darkroom, I’d enter with a sense of excitement and descend to a realm of shuffling, sighs, delight and sometimes disappointment. The outcome, whatever that was, always made my creativity flow and competitiveness bubble like champagne.” 

The eagerness and motivation that Ann first experienced in the darkroom is what also led her to investigate the chrysotype process. This began twelve years ago following a workshop with Dr. Mike Ware, creator of the New Chrysotype process, at Gold Street Studio in Victoria, Australia. Enamored with the process, Ann explored chrysotype with a range of subject matter including landscape, portraits and still life.

Idun, 6 x 7.5 chrysotype print, Esme Ann Everingham, 2013

Ann also tested mild acids to use as a developing agent in the first wet processing bath. She was curious to work out those that might affect colour differently from the standard developing acids. Ann tried ascorbic acid in various forms (crushed Vitamin C tablets, powder and granules) and varying acid strengths and water temperature to produce different colour intensities and variations that she found ‘quite pleasing to the eye’.

To read more about Ann’s experimentations with chrysotype and to view her imagery, purchase Chrysotype: A Contemporary Guide to Photographic Printing in Gold.

Spotlight on Pradip Malde

Pradip began working with new chrysotype when he was asked to test the process during the early days of Dr. Mike Ware formulating his recipes. He produced several images including one of my favourites, Dill flower, Irkutsk, Siberia as shown above.

Pradip’s photographic work considers the experience of loss and how it serves as a catalyst for regeneration. His work in Haiti that is captured in The Third Heaven conveys a narrative of disorder and resuscitation and themes of tenacity and resourcefulness. From Where Loss Comes is about female genital cutting and sacrifice, a photographic collaboration with the late Sarah Mwaga, founder of the Anti-Female Genital Mutilation Network in Tanzania. The collaboration seeded when Malde and Mwaga first met and after discussing their work, discovered there was potential for a mutual project.

For From Where Loss Comes, Pradip photographed hand-forged cutting tools used by the ngaribas (Swahili for circumcisers) and collected by Mwaga.[1] The images, photographed on 8" x 10" film and printed with platinum and palladium, provide insight into the pain that is covered and felt in isolation, and a cultural and traditional practice that clash with fundamental human rights.[2] In 2018, Pradip received a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in recognition of this work.

To see more of Pradip’s portfolio of work, please visit https://pradipmalde.com/

To read more about Pradip’s approach to chrysotype, click here to purchase a copy of Chrysotype: A Contemporary Guide to Photographic Printing in Gold

To learn more about photographic printing with platinum and palladium see the recently released book by Pradip with Dr. Mike Ware Platinotype Making Photographs in Platinum and Palladium with the Contemporary Printing-out Process

[1] Hamman, Henry. Chronicler of Loss, Sewanee The University of the South, http://new.sewanee.edu/features/chronicler-of-loss/

[2] https://pradipmalde.com/from-where-loss-comes/

Spotlight on: Wendy Currie

Wendy is a thoughtful person and photographer. Her images often show intriguing detail that deals with the play of light on manmade and natural objects. Working with alternative photographic processes for over 25 years, Wendy has an inherent knack of knowing what process works best with her images.

Wendy has perfectly matched the pink and split tone hues of chrysotype with her series Feminity and Memory. The images from this series use the soft tones of chrysotype to present vintage jewellery and fashion accessories. They appear without context, which is often lost as memory fades.

To learn more about Wendy’s Feminity and Memory series and work with alternative photographic processes visit her website.

To gain insight into Wendy’s tips and troubleshooting for chrysotype, click here to purchase a copy of Chrysotype: A Contemporary Guide to Photographic Printing in Gold

Spotlight on: Tony McLean

Based in the UK, Tony’s photographic work includes landscapes, street scenes and interactions between people or wildlife. The detail and tones in many of his landscape images are beautifully accentuated by the effect of printing in platinum and palladium.

Tony began exploring chrysotype gold printing in the late 1990s as an alternative to the black and brown hues of his platinum prints. His experiments with chrysotype and fixed-out baryta fibre-based paper show the many possibilities of working with this print-out process.

To aid his experimentation, Tony describes scouring auction sites for ampoules of antique gold chloride and being gifted gold solutions from a friend who made these by dissolving scrap gold sourced from a jeweller.

Bavarian Roof Tops shown above is a favourite image of mine. To view more of his work with 19th century photographic printing processes, visit Tony’s Flickr page.

To read about Tony’s explorations with chrysotype, click here to purchase a copy of Chrysotype: A Contemporary Guide to Photographic Printing in Gold.

Spotlight on: Bianca Conwell

Wonderful photographers have shared their creative practice and process for working with chrysotype in ‘Chrysotype: A Contemporary Guide to Photographic Printing in Gold. Over the next couple of months, you’ll get an insight into their work and how to find out more about them. To kick us off, please read on about the fabulous Bianca Conwell.

Autumn Fig Leaves © Bianca Conwell

Bianca uses her fascination with the blue, lilac, and purple hues of chrysotype to gracefully convey the mood of her imagery. Personal nostalgia is a large part of her work, which often portrays the childhood memories of the landscape she grew up in.

With a focus on nature and sunlight to capture scenes, it seems an intuitive extension that Bianca’s chrysotype prints are exposed using the ultra-violet rays of the sun.

A natural curiosity has led her to experiment with different types of negatives, with film and wet plate glass negatives her current focus. The beautiful Autumn Fig Leaves above was produced with a wet plate negative.

To learn more about Bianca’s portfolio of work visit her at biancaconwell.com

To find out about Bianca’s journey with the chrysotype process, purchase a copy of Chrysotype: A Contemporary Guide to Photographic Printing in Gold.

Chrysotype: a contemporary guide to photographic printing in gold

Available in October 2020, the front cover for Chrysotype has been released. The book is divided into three sections: history; preparation and how-to; and the work of contemporary artists using chrysotype.

A big thank you to the 'foundations' that have enabled my art practice, which has led to writing this guide to photographic printing in (nanoparticle) gold - Centre for Creative Photography, Adelaide, Mike Ware, Ellie Young (Gold Street Studios), Christina Z. Anderson.

Open call for Chrysotype images

Focal Press, an imprint of Routledge, has spearheaded the book series Contemporary Practices in Alternative Process Photography. 

I am very excited to be writing a book on Chrysotype as part of this series. It will include an historical overview, how-to section and highlight the wonderful work of people creating images using this photographic printing process. I'm calling for submissions of work until 24 September, 2018 and invite you to submit images for consideration as part of the book. Please complete and upload the following content to Dropbox or WeTransfer and send the URL to mcpheeleanne@gmail.com 

Download and complete a permission form and a questionnaire. Completing the questionnaire also includes providing a short bio, artist statement about the work submitted and information about your creative practice.

3-10 images, sRGB colorspace, sized no larger than 300ppi, 10˝ longest side, TIFF, no compression, at least one vertical and one horizontal image. Please also include up to five scans of failed prints for a chrysotype troubleshooting pictorial guide. You must have permission forms for any person(s) or property in the photograph if applicable.

Please place all image details for captioning in a Word docx. Details are to include:

• Year, title, and size of work, e.g. 8˝ x 10˝

• Previous publication details for the work

• Exact process used (e.g. chrysotype or chrysotype hand-coloured)

• How you want your name to appear next to the work, e.g. Drape © Leanne McPhee, 2018

Please note: your submission will be part of a selection process. Confirmation of selection will be three weeks after the deadline. If selected, benefits will be a résumé publication line and inclusion in a contemporary historical snapshot of Chrysotype.

Looking forward to hearing from you. Leanne.

Chrysotype process at the Convergence Conference

Unique to the chrysotype (gold printing) process are subtle monochromatic hues that range from pink, violet, and purple to blue, grey and black, along with pink/blue split tones. Achieving these colours can be challenging and doing so lies in controlling a number of factors, including the humidity and sizing in paper. 

It was an exciting opportunity to illustrate the impact of paper choice and regulated humidity levels on image colour as part of the Convergence Conference in Melbourne, Australia. Hosted by the AIMBI, IPT and the BCA[1], the conference featured presentations in medical, biological, scientific and creative areas of photographic and visual expertise. A diverse range of educational presentations were delivered that focused on:

• a new microscopic magnification system for focused stacked images of small creatures
• the role of medical/clinical photography in supporting patient treatment
• the simplification of the four colour carbon transfer process
• the application of virtual reality in virology diagnostics and research.

The audience was introduced to chrysotype, a hand-made photographic printing process. In short, an image is created when a solution of gold and iron salts is coated onto 100% cotton paper, dried and/or hydrated, brought into contact with a digital or film negative, exposed to ultra violet light and then taken through a wet bath process. It’s at the drying/hydration stage that regulating moisture levels becomes important to get a desired hue.

Pink and violet hues can be achieved when moisture is reduced (below 40%), darker hues such as blue and black when moisture is increased (above 60%). One straightforward method to reduce moisture is to use a hairdryer with an attached diffuser. With the example below the sensitised papers have been dried in four-minute intervals with a hairdryer to show the effect of reducing moisture.

                        4 mins

                        8 mins

                        12 mins

The longer the print was heat dried, the lower the moisture content and the pinker the shadow areas became. Some precautions when drying with this method – don’t hold the hairdryer too close to the paper and ensure an even flow of warm air (keep it on low). Doing these will help avoid hot spots forming on the paper that can cause uneven image formation.

[1] The Australian Institute of Medical and Biological Illustration (AIMBI), The Institute of Photographic Technology (IPT) and the Bio Communications Association.

Artist + Conservator + Curator = ?

Thanks to the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation I attended the Salted Paper Symposium at Harvard University to discuss the challenges associated with the characterisation, preservation and contemporary use of the salt print.

During one presentation, an equation to successfully identify and preserve early salt prints was suggested: Conservator + Curator + Scientist = Discovery. Information about the chemistry and process to create early salt prints is not always known because photographers sometimes withheld or did not kept these details. The roles expressed in the equation have been essential to the identification and preservation of these prints.

But what would the equation look like if changed to include photographers and applied to the contemporary context?

Contemporary approaches to salt printing were discussed from different perspectives during the symposium. Photographic practitioners presented their process for and research on salt printing and conservation challenges they’d identified. Conservators and curators also presented their conservation and preservation challenges, new conservation research and with scientists and technicians, useful analytical and identification methods. Valuable insights were shared and the challenges and importance of salt print conservation acknowledged. However, the connection between conservation and contemporary salt prints and the role photographers can and need to play in collaborative conservation efforts were topics not fully explored.

Symposia such as this offer an exciting platform to discuss these topics. They can also deliberately facilitate the relationship between artists and conservators with the objective of safeguarding photographic work now for the future. After all, prevention is better than cure.

FAIC/Mellon Professional Development Scholarship Award

Harvard Hall (Harvard Art Museums)

It is an honour to have received this Scholarship Award from the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (FAIC) and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Award will enable me to participate in the Salted Paper Prints Symposium at Harvard University to talk and learn more about the creation and conservation of salt prints and a hand-on workshop Northeast Document Conservation Center.

The symposium is a collaboration between Foundation for the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, Harvard Art Museums, and Houghton Library, Harvard Weissman Preservation Center.

Shimmer Photography Biennale 2016: Alchemical Traces @ Red Poles Gallery

Distinction (chrysotype print) and Intermediary (salt print) from the series 'Drape'

Alchemical Traces: Contemporary South Australian Hand-Craft Photographers

Twelve South Australian photographers bypass digital processes to explore alternative photographic processes and the hand-crafted image of slow photography. As the digital image becomes more immediate and pervasive, these photographers nurture their work through the painstakingly complex, deliberate, and protracted techniques used in traditional laboratories between 100 and 150 years ago.

Chris Reid, Director Blanco Negro

Thanks Chris for your kind words about the Drape series.