Project #8 - Digital Alternative Process

Daguerreotypes

Daguerrotype of Edger Allan Poe

Daguerrotypes were the first publicly available process. It was introduced in 1839 by inventor  Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, and it quickly became the most commonly used practice at the time. To create the photo, one would first treat a sheet of silver-plated copper with fumes to give it a light sensitive surface. They would expose it in a camera for as long as was judged by the lighting, make  fume it with mercury vapor, remove its light sensitivity with further chemical treatment, rinse and dry it, and finally seal the final photo in a protective case of some kind to prevent it from getting destroyed. Needless to say this process requires a lot of sensitive work, the handling of extremely dangerous chemicals, and time. Should any step go wrong and the entire image may be irreversibly damaged.







Resources:
What is a Daguerreotype?
How to Spot a Daguerrotype



Cyanotypes

"Algae" by Anna Atkins

Cyanotype is a photographic process that produces a cyan print of the image. Engineers used the process in the 20th century as a way to produce copies of engineering drawings, referred to as blueprints. The process uses a 20% solution of ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide to create an imprint, and then it is placed in a dry dark room to finalize the chemical procedure. The process can be done on any kind of paper or cloth, provided it is capable of soaking the solution.
















Resources:
The Cyanotype Process
Cyanotype: step into the blue and see the world in a new light



Gelatin Silver Prints

David Saffir

Starting in the late 1800s, gelatin silver process is a method of photo processing where a suspension of silver salts in gelatin is coated onto a surface like glass, plastic, or specially coated paper. Unlike its predecessors, the materials used for this method are stable under normal keeping conditions.

"Seeing Light" by Angela Franks Wells

Chromoskedasic sabattier is an experimental version of gelatin silver process developed in the 1990s wherein the silver halides in gelatin silver paper are brought to the surface, resulting in a strange, flowing filter on top an otherwise black and white print. The filters that arise on the photo cannot be completely controlled, causing the final product to be both the artist's intention and the random chance of the chemicals.














Resources:
Chromoskedasic Sabattier: a step-by-step guide
Gelatin Silver Prints