Prints Options

[moschops]

Check out this online exhibit of mammoth plate albumen contact prints. Be sure to click on the images and open up the zoom browser.

[moschops]

This is a gold-toned vandyke print. Vandykes are based on the argentotype, invented by John Herschel in 1842, the earliest of the iron processes. The metal used is silver, which is susceptible to deterioration so the print is toned with gold for permanence.

[Provenance]

What creates the "brushstroke" pattern?

[moschops]

If you're talking about the borders -- a brush. If you mean the squiggles within the image -- absinthe.

[Provenance]

Absinthe it is. Could you post a color version that shows the goldtone?

[moschops]

That is a color photo of the print. Contrary to what one would expect, gold, when used in printing, is a blue/purple/indigo color. When toning prints that are brown, like vandykes, it will move the color toward an eggplant black. Silver, when used in these old processes usually prints brown, platinum is neutral, and palladium a warm black. When platinum hit the scene a lot of people didn't like the neutral black because the dominant flavor at the time was the purple/brown of gold-toned albumen prints.

Here's a straight vandyke…



…and one partly-toned with gold to create a split-tone--cool highlights and warm shadows.

[Provenance]

I defintely like that, particularly the straight vandyke although the absinthe nude is my favorite of the series.