With all the pyromaniacs around here, how many of you are using so called "alternative processes" for your printing?
Surely many into pt, right? And what about ziatypes, argyrotypes, carbon, and the rest? Any "gum shoes" around here? How do you think your version stacks up to the "silver standard"? I've read accounts of people looking at images who remark "why would anyone spend all that money just to have something that looks like cra*p!" as well as accounts stating how the inkjet conquers all. Where do you stand on it?
Got a story about an "aha - now it works!" ? or a "hmmm, there is something to this!"?
In my journeys, at times the most elementary alt process gets troublesome when attempting it by instructions only ( the costly way for sure! ). Today, I decided to use up a half bottle of argyrotype sensitizer. I figured all my other attempts with it actually did look like cra*p in a sometimes charming way - so why not us the whole thing up? With contempt for the stuff, I poured on twice the recommended sensitizer and then worked it in with rod. Serious contempt here - hung it up to dry for an hour. Well I'll be - exposure times were shorter than Centinnial POP, and a tad less than palladium with the same neg, however the image came out a lovely matt chocolate with a vibrant quality to it. I was amazed at just how charming it was. ( I'm stil not giving up the silver standard though ). So I tried a couple of "normal" negs that would have required dodging and burning to get the clouds in the sky - hey - that worked great. Maybe there is something to the old ways or at least modern convenient versions of them. The crummy argyrotype, the "Playskool" of alt processes so to speak, actually beat my scanner at capturing highlights.
While I have to make regular modern process images as part of what I do, in the "spare" moments I explore a bit of the alt stuff , and try some of those boxes of stuff I picked up while browsing the photo store. It's a sort of alchemy or perhaps even a voodoo for lost and zombified images. Do you, Voodoo?
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