Introduction
This book is an encouragement to leave the photographic tradition of representation, and to enter a broader area of creative control. The processes presented are not new, but the work reproduced here is fresh and unique. Each chapter, along with its accompanying reproductions, is the work of a practicing artist. These artist/authors have been selected for several reasons. First, each embodies a commitment to, and an understanding of, a specific way of working with photographic materials. Second, each artist has devoted sufficient effort to a way of working that it has merged with that artist’s vision. Thus the imagery transcends the novelty of the process. Third, the editor and the majority of the artists represented here are professional educators as well, teaching in university art departments across the country. From that wealth of experience come lucid and thorough explanations.
The processes are also carefully selected. None demands more experience with photography than that of processing and printing black-and-white film. All utilize readily available materials, and require little equipment beyond a basic black-and-white darkroom. Each chapter has been crafted to present a procedure in as pure a form as possible. Many processes, however, overlap others, and virtually all can be combined. Toning and hand coloring, for example, can be applied to prints made by Sabattier, reticulation, or photomontage. Although intentionally excluded, conventional color photographic materials can be substituted for black-and-white in almost every circumstance.
It would be no challenge, following the procedures outlined in this book, for you to produce images which seem novel and innovative. The difficulty, and the real creativity, will come with your attempt to sustain that feeling of accomplishment. By the very nature of the included material, the possibilities are endless. Consider the suggestions in this book as merely starting points. There are no rules, and as Harry Callahan once said, “that’s what makes art better than baseball.”
Acknowledgments
The production of this book has been a cooperative project of the highest order. I would like to thank each chapter author for an exemplary job and for tireless cooperation. For production assistance, thank you to Karen Campbell, William E. Crawford, Carlota Duarte, Martha Jenks, Jon Holmes, Arno Minkkinen, Ann Parson, Davis Pratt, Belinda Rathbone, Leslie Simitch, and Kris Suderman. For technical assistance, Dennis Purcell for the Polaroid Peel-Apart chapter, and Frank N. McLaughlin of Eastman Kodak and Larry McPherson for the Dye Transfer chapter. The illustration photographs for the Dye Transfer chapter were made by Alden Spilman. The photograph on p. 5 is courtesy of the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Purchase: Robert M. Sedgwick II fund. The reproductions on pp. 40, 67, and 175 (left) are courtesy of the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House.
Special thanks go to David Herwaldt for editorial assistance, Katy Homans for a beautiful book design, and to both for moral support. Extra special thanks go to my parents, Charles and Sylvia Stone, for everything.
Jim Stone
A 2015 Note from the Editor
The technology of photography has transformed since the original publication of this book in 1979. Many of the materials for analog photography have vanished, along with some of the companies that made them. Now, the visual qualities of most of this book’s explorations can be approached, if not replicated, with digital images and computer manipulation.
Nonetheless, the insights of artists represented here, as well as their approach to process, are as valuable today as then. And despite the fading of its commercial practicality, there is sustained interest in, and passion for, film-and-darkroom photography.
This book is again available printed exactly as it was, but with the addition of short notes in text boxes like this one that indicate some of the products that are no longer available and—when possible—suggestions for substitution.