What will happen to your negatives in "the end"?

[Mark Sawyer]

No - please elaborate never heard of this.

Potassium dichromate was the go-to staining agent for wood for centuries. I'd bet a lot of our older cameras were stained with it.

Actually, it's not a stain, it's an oxidizer that darkens the natural tannins in the wood. The Dichromate is a bit toxic, so handle with care. But the results can be beautiful, it has a place in history, and as potassium dichromate has multiple uses in photography, you may have some around. Google it and you'll find many references:

https://www.woodworkersjournal.com/u...-stain-cherry/

https://www.lumberjocks.com/alindobra/blog/20036

[bob carnie]

Potassium dichromate was the go-to staining agent for wood for centuries. I'd bet a lot of our older cameras were stained with it.

Actually, it's not a stain, it's an oxidizer that darkens the natural tannins in the wood. The Dichromate is a bit toxic, so handle with care. But the results can be beautiful, it has a place in history, and as potassium dichromate has multiple uses in photography, you may have some around. Google it and you'll find many references:

https://www.woodworkersjournal.com/u...-stain-cherry/

https://www.lumberjocks.com/alindobra/blog/20036

I actually use Ammonium Dichromate but can easily try potassium we are use in working with this material here. Thank you so much as this may explain further to me how dichromate works with Tree Sap and hardens it with exposure to light.

Thanks for the links I think they are very helpful
Bob

So sorry to the OP for taking this thread off course, I think I will start a pigment thread.

[Drew Wiley]

That technique is called "ebonizing". But there are much safer and less expensive formulas than the dichromate route, easily searched on the web. The wood itself needs a high tannic acid content. So some wood species darken far more than others. But using such a solution also raises the grain, so you have to polish or fine sand everything down again afterward, prior to a final sealant. A major wholesale frame factory in this area had a lot of demand for that, with one employee dedicated to it almost full time. But due to the substantial extra cost of the appropriate hardwoods, as well as extra labor expense, they eventually switched entirely to Black Cat ink for their opaque black wooden frames. However, a partial chemical ebonizing might simulate ammonia fuming of white oak without the awful health risk involved with that.

Now as per that linked insane "death wish" toxic voodoo method of enhancing cherry ... escape the Medieval Inquisition torture chamber and acquire a modern transoxide colored sealant. I've used something called Cetol 1 for both personal picture framing and cabinetry needs, as well as massive architectural restorations (including one entire Frank Lloyd house, inside and out, plus furniture - a six million dollar renovation project). It's totally lightfast, truly transparent, penetrates deeply, and is dispersed in oil sealant, so allow it to thoroughly outgas before putting artwork in the frame. There is also a water-based equivalent, but it's not as deluxe to apply.

And yeah, it might be nice to section all this off to a separate thread.

[Bernice Loui]

Brett Weston's Obituary from 1993 SF chron..






Bernice

Brett did have a plan; it was to destroy all of his negatives when he turned 80. It was a decision he made at the conclusion of spending a year printing from 800+ of Edward's negatives (the Print Project.) --- only Brett would ever print his own negatives.

The burning of his negatives has been somewhat exaggerated. Actually, the destruction began months before his birthday as the negatives were soaked in bins of water and hauled to the county dump in Salinas. The few he threw into his fireplace on birthday morning were for show and the benefit of an international press looking on. Brett always enjoyed the theatrical!

As to what remain of his negatives, Brett was finally convinced by two close friends to save a few for student study. They spent time in his negative vault, ultimately saving about sixty negatives. The corners were cut. On the evening of his birthday party at Stonepine Resort, I recall Cole parading around with about a dozen famous negatives that had been hole punched. They, and I assume those from the vault, reside at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson.

You are fortunate to have some of Brett's prints to enjoy; I too!

[Bernice Loui]

Appears some of Ansel Adam's negatives were canceled via a Wells Fargo Check canceling machine.. per Alan Ross.




Bernice

I think of two extremes in the fine-art world: Ansel Adams and Brett Weston. Adams gave his archive to Arizona State with the idea that advanced students could use his negatives with new printing technology etc etc. Weston burned all his negatives and left us only the prints he had made. I will probably donate some to our County Historical Society. Giving my prints to friends etc is a good idea. I do have a few historically significant photos where prints and negatives should stay together.

[Tin Can]

Nobody listens to what the dead want

We constantly dig up bodies, Pyramids, sacred native bodies, artifacts

I look at Earth as a vast graveyard made of all life, dust to dust

What 'value added' has any human done?

Today I found, my nephew is now a lonely terrified niece

I must help her NOW

but how

[Bernice Loui]

Sharing your most valuable resource.... your time and all that comes with your time.


Bernice

Today I found, my nephew is now a lonely terrified niece

I must help her NOW

but how

[Tin Can]

Thank you

Sharing your most valuable resource.... your time and all that comes with your time.


Bernice

[Merg Ross]

There is something to be said for the preservation of historically significant negatives and prints. My story:

Several years ago I had the opportunity to rescue a large archive of historical negatives that was likely destined for the dump. A long story, that I will shorten by saying the task fell to me by an unexpected death of an estate executor.

The archive in question is namely the Ed Kirwan ASUC Photograph Archive. Ed hired me when I was twenty as a photographer and photo finisher to work in the ASUC Graphic Arts Department at the University of California, Berkeley. It was my introduction to commercial and press photography; I was fortunate to have Ed's patient guidance, and that of a co-worker who had graduated from Brooks Institute of Photography. For the next ten years Ed was my supervisor until I departed to begin a freelance career. He taught me most of what I know about photography.

Before retiring, Ed had arranged with the University to become sole owner of the large photo archive documenting fifty years of campus activities. He moved the entire archive of 500,000 negatives to the garage of his East Bay home. Ed died in 2015 at the age 0f 92. A short time later his son unexpectedly died.

By an unusual circumstance, a friend of Ed's family learned that I had worked for him in the 1960's and 70's. She contacted me with great concern about the fate of the negatives, believing they night be of some value. She had no idea how to proceed. I immediately thought of the Bancroft Library situated on the UC campus, and contacted them. A week later I met two of their archivists at the garage. They were excited; you would have thought they had discovered gold! I explained Ed's filing system to them so that they understood exactly what they were getting.

The following week a large truck arrived to transport 153 boxes of negatives to the University. They contained ten years worth of my negatives, including those from the day I photographed Ansel receiving his honorary degree from the University. For me, it was a wonderful farewell as the truck departed, taking the collection in Ed's name to a good home.


https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8dv1rxf/

[r.e.]

The archive in question is namely the Ed Kirwan ASUC Photograph Archive. Ed hired me when I was twenty as a photographer and photo finisher to work in the ASUC Graphic Arts Department at the University of California, Berkeley. ... For the next ten years Ed was my supervisor until I departed to begin a freelance career. He taught me most of what I know about photography.

By an unusual circumstance, a friend of Ed's family learned that I had worked for him in the 1960's and 70's.

As I understand it, the ASUC is the Berkeley Students' Association. I would think that there might be some pretty interesting photographs in that archive, especially from the early to late 1960s.

1960s Berkeley Protests: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960s_Berkeley_protests