The gum bichromate technique derives its name from the two components that are used, namely gum Arabic and bichromate of potassium or ammonium. At the turn of the 19th century this technique was extremely successful, perceived as a top sophistication in photography, linking the young photographic art with its older sibling, painting. Many acknowledged artists, like Robert Demechy, Hugo Henneberg, the Hoffmeister brothers, Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz, used it, reaching the point of mastery.
What made gum bichromate so special and interesting for artists with so many other special techniques available? First of all, its beauty, specific texture and mood emanating from the finished photograph, which resembled a painting or a graphic. Secondly, an extraordinary flexibility of the very process of developing a photograph. In this process a specially prepared paper is covered with photosensitive emulsion, consisting of the gum Arabic solution, bichromate of potassium or ammonium, and pigment that provides the picture with a desired colour.
Nearly every inorganic dye such as umber, sienna or soot, can serve as a pigment. A dry emulsion is exposed to ultra-violet rich light and in the exposed areas loses its typical solubility. The process of developing a picture takes place in plain water that dissolves the previously exposed parts of the picture. Since the process of covering the emulsion usually needs to be repeated several times, gum bichromate is a manual technique, allowing for vast interference during the creation of a picture, especially in terms of using colours. As such, it is suitable for people with patience and a well-developed aesthetic taste. I strongly believe that a big advantage of gum bichromate is its uniqueness. Every subsequent photograph made from the same negative will differ in colour, contrast or texture, therefore every picture is unique. Another advantage lies in durability of a picture, practically lasting as long as the paper used in the process.
Gum bichromate was actually abandoned in the late thirties due to new trends in photography, reportage for instance, which required improved photographic materials. It seemed that the gum bichromate process was nothing but history, never to be repeated. Yet quite the contrary happened to this technique, through its revival in many European countries and in the USA. It is probably due to the surfeit of all kinds of automatisation in photography and mawkish, sugary and patterned colours available in minilabs, nowadays so popular all over the world.
Effects similar to those created in the gum bichromate technique can be achieved by means of a new method, called Photogravure, in which polymers are used. This method is described in a book published in Denmark by Borgen. A description of the traditional gum bichromate process can be found in THE KEEPERS OF LIGHT by William Crawford, published in the USA in 1979 by MORGAN.
As it has already been mentioned, for over 150 years in the history of photography various special photographic techniques were used, for instance bromine oil, Izohelia, platinum etc. and it is not possible to describe them all in just a few words. There also arised many trends that treated photography as means of artistic expression.
As for Poland, one can actually encounter here a reflection of the same as in the rest of the world. Generally speaking, one can distinguish a personal documentary trend, artistic photography trend based on FIAP aesthetics, and a trend that can be depicted as vanguard photography. Quite often these trends intermingle, creating new ways of expression that are sometimes outstanding, with a frequent use of computer skills. Technically sophisticated photographs of that kind are often used in advertising as a strong influencing visual stimulus.
Wiestav Mariusz Zielinski
No comments:
Post a Comment