Digital BW, The Print

Every ten years or so the Museum of Fine Arts here in Boston struts 
out its cache of impressionist paintings-guaranteed boffo box office. 
We took in the show today, and for once, the highlight was not the 
Monets.

To broaden the scope, this time they included works on 
paper...including watercolors they admit can't be shown often because 
of fade issues. There was also a selection of photographs from the 
era-mostly salt prints and albumens, which have held up nicely, being 
silver based. But the killer image was a super-mammoth glass plate 
print of a mountain waterfall by Adolphe Braun (about 20" x 30"), 
circa 1870 or so. It had a tonal richness and depth that was vastly 
superior to anything else on the wall, and beyond most modern prints 
by any process. The wall label stated it was done with a carbon 
pigment process Braun had developed (but my history of photography 
texts indicate he acquired the French rights to the process, and by 
1868 his firm was producing 1500 prints a day!). Close inspection 
showed absolutely no suggestion of fading, highlights and shadows 
were fully detailed, no discoloration or discontinuity of tone or 
color. At 125 years and counting, it is stunning. Anyone doing quad 
tone pigment printing should try to see vintage carbon prints for 
inspiration-if the past is any indication of what a carbon pigment 
process can produce, the future looks great, but the present sure has 
a way to go yet.

And if Jon Cone is interested in looking past Arnold Gassan for ideas 
on ink sets, he just might want to come down to Boston and take a 
look...
-- 
Bruce C. Kinch
Associate Professor of Photography
The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University