The GUM-BICHROMATE-WATERCOLOR PIGMENT
Process
Cibachrome prints will lose 10% of their color density if they are outdoors and at a
45degree angle toward the south within 20 days in the summer. If the prints are inside and
six feet from a window and have no direct sun it will take 5 years to lose this 10%. Or
under continuous tungsten light and no daylight, such as museum conditions, it will take
15 to 30 years. In any case they will not survive most of us.
Cibachrome is claimed to be the best for longevity among the common color processes.
All these processes use dyes and all dyes fade and are not permanent. Permanence itself is
considered a requirement for fine art.
To solve the problem photographers can do two things. They can make all their photo's in
black and white, as many do, or they can use color pigments.
In 1839 Mongo Ponton detected the light-sensitivity of dichromates.
In 1858 John Pouncy, an English professional photographer begin to experiment with gum
arabic, pigment and potassium dichromate. He displayed some of his prints at the
Photographic Society in London in April of 1858. The prints were criticized for their
inferior tonal scale in comparison to silver prints. Silver prints are permanent but only
as black and white and allow very little control after the photo is taken.
Gum prints did not come into wide use until the 1890's when theories of fine art
photography began to change. Robert Demachy wrote that, "The beauty of the subject in
nature has nothing to do with the quality that makes a work of art. This special quality
is given by the artist's way of expressing himself." He added; "Meddling with a
gum print may or may not add the vital spark, though without meddling there will surely be
no spark whatever." The gum print although not as sharp and with less tonal quality
allowed considerable control during printing and afterward.
This philosophy of print manipulation lasted about 15 years with all the great
photographers at the turn of the century using it. However, it was not used as a permanent
multi-color medium as I use it but as a permanent medium that allows extreme control.
Print manipulation declined around 1907 when aesthetic theories began to turn toward the
sharp precise line of documentary photography. This was due to a great extent to the needs
of photography for publication and to a lesser degree to the aesthetic theories that
stated; "A photograph should do what it can do best, record reality, an image of a
real time and a real place."
Many great photographers turned to commercial work but fine art photography survived in
the super sharp non-manipulated, somewhat abstract photographs of Edward Weston and the
Surrealist photographs of Man Ray.
Man Ray took photo theory farther and said. "Photo's should do what photography alone
can do and painting cannot." Man Ray did many photographs in the 1920's and 30's
using the Sabattier Effect and photograms.
I have taken the dominate current theory of recording reality within the limitations of
the medium and gone farther and added what the photo is incapable of. I give the photo a
permanent color by first using the gum/pigment/bichromate process and then adding
permanent multi-color watercolor paint.
Many aesthetic factors are also taken into consideration. I first of all assume that the
camera and film will record reality of time and place no matter what I do. I then
concentrate on strong simple compositions. I prefer the diagonal. I also look for good eye
control with line, color, and forms that draw the eye toward the major point of interest.
This is all accomplished by moving the camera to the ideal spot.
It has been said that an attribute of a master painter is that you cannot move, remove, or
change any portion of his painting and make it better. The master took what he had and did
it the best it could be done.
The same can be said for the photographer. In his situation, you could not have moved the
camera into any other position or released the shutter at any other time and made a better
photograph.
That is what fine art or fine photography is; "The best that can be".
I have attempted, first through design manipulation then through print manipulation and
finally through color manipulation, to make these images the best they can be.
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