Digital BW, The Print

I used to work at an archive that housed all the original master
prints of Adams and W.Eugene Smith. I held them in my hands on a daily
basis and it was a good way to learn. Smith was teaching there in
Arizona, at the end of his life, so we had the opportunity of not only
studying all the original work but also asking him about it and often
recording his conversations for posterity.

It is a strange thing but Smith shot on the run and in chaotic
situations and often with a not very powerful flash unit in very dark
situations with a Nikon. More often than not his exposures were far
from ideal. He used Potassium Ferrocynide bleach on so many  of his
world famous prints that it would blow your mind. The famous one of
Albert Switzier close up or the burial group from the Spanish Village
series for instance. He used the bleach right on the surface of the
print to lighten subtle info in the shadows. It's strange but it
worked extremely well. These master prints were of course first used
for reproduction in Life Magazine but for print sales he either
repeated the process or had 4x5 copy negs made of the "master" prints.

I did some of this bleaching back then out of curiosity. The one thing
that is extremely important is that you treat the film or prints with
a strong hypo clear solution and wash the material for a long time! If
there is even a slight hint of the bleach left on the print or film it
will turn a sick yellow orange color in time. I've seen a lot of those
stained prints around. We actually had a guy in graduate school who
did some really beautiful creatively bleached prints, a whole body of
work, and they all stained before he graduated. So be careful.

John




--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Brian"
<brian@...> wrote:
>
> 
> Hi All
> I have a copy of 'The British Journal Photographic Almanac' 1920
which gives 
> formulae for seven different negative reducers. They are Farmers 
> (ferricyanide), Belitski's (with Oxalic Acid), Persulphate (just
ammonium 
> persulphate), Iodine-cyanide (with Potassium Cyanide), Ceric
Sulphate (still 
> available), Permanganate, Bichromate (potassium), Hyporchlor and
Alum (with 
> Eau de Javelle - sodium hypochlorite) and 'Eders' which was:
> Potassium cyanide....5 gms.
> Potassium Iodide.....10 gms
> Mercury bichloride...10 gms and
> Water .... 1,000cc. It says it reduces slowly, and is non-staining and 
> intensely poisionous - try getting that one past health and safety.
> There is also 'Baskett's Local Reducer':
> Globe metal polish.....2d tin .( old pennies)
> Terebene.......2 ozs. (a cold remedy)
> Salad oil....2 ozs
> 'Dense parts of the negative are rubbed down with the reducer
applied by the 
> finger-tip or with a bit of chamois leather'
> Interesting times!
> 
> Brian Price
>