Digital BW, The Print

>Edward used the extremely toxic
>developer Pyro for his negatives and the equally nasty  Amidol for his
prints.
>His hands turned black from using this stuff and it eventually killed him,

There is absolutely no scientific evidence of a link between the chemicals
Weston used and Parkinson's disease. Plenty of people used pyro and amidol
back then and many still do today, none of whom have died of Parkinson's
disease as far as I know.  Neither chemical is particularly dangerous if a
few simple precautions of the kind that should be observed with any darkroom
chemicals are observed, mainly mixing the pyro powders in a well ventilated
area and wearing gloves while doing so. Amidol isn't even particularly toxic
and it certainly didn't turn Weston's "hands" black. If used without gloves
amidol turns fingernails black as it did the fingernails of many
photographers besides Weston (including his son Brett) who didn't die of
Parkinson's disease. Unsightly perhaps but hardly fatal.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "john dean" <deanwork2003@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2005 10:18 PM
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Best Rip for 2200 - Weston would agree?




Back in the 70's  I worshiped Weston. When I was working at the Center in
Tucson I saw a series of portraits that Wynn Bullock did of him as he was
dying of Parkinsons. They were so sad. Edward used the extremely toxic
developer Pyro for his negatives and the equally nasty  Amidol for his
prints.
His hands turned black from using this stuff and it eventually killed him,
destroyed his nervous system, long before he should have left this earth.
Chemicals also eventually killed my teacher Todd Walker and put another of
my teachers in the hospital with liver poisoning.  Todd named each of his
tumors after the various processes that he specialized in. I don't look back
on
those times as the good ole days. I'm more than happy to do a little
research
on rips to live a little while longer.

John ( breathing clean air in my studio every day of the week)






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