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Marek was born in Poland. He now lives and works in the United States, calling Houston, Texas his home. He likes the landscape of the American West and travels extensively to the National Parks of the West with his 4x5 view camera. He has a chemistry degree and is a self-taught photographer. He has exhibited his B&W work in several local juried shows. About two years ago he read Mike Ware's article about the new Chrysotype process and decided to give it a try.
Chrysotype is a process of making photographic prints out of pure gold. He believes that gold is the last element to be discovered for the purpose of making photographic images (it has an extensive use as a toning reagent). It has a unique property of making colloidal solution of different colors. What that means for the photographer is that pink, red, magenta, blue, black and all the shades in between can be used in a creative photographic process. Split tones of blue and magenta are possible and are a trademark of the Chrysotype process. Several hundreds of prints later some of his work is ready to be shown.
Marek says about his work:
Finally I can match the color of the picture to my mood. After all we live in a world of color even if we take our pictures on a black and white film.
Marek about chrysotypes
The use of gold in photography goes back to the beginnings, when Herschel discovered a method for making prints out of gold and named the process Chrysotype. The process never gained any popularity among photographers because of difficulties in making gold sensitizers. It wasn't until the discovery of new gold chemistry by M. Ware (see his page on this site) in the 1990's that the prints of gold made by the new Chrysotype process became a reality. I should warn the reader the process is not for the faint of the heart. I have spent hundreds of hours experimenting with Ware's process, making extensive modifications of it, as well as developing new Chrysotype recipes that are closer to the original attempts of Herschel.
- The Satista print process
- Lumen prints: a description
Find: New articles Process step-by-step Working practices
Writer / Marek Matusz
Photography / Marek Matusz
Lumen prints
Marek gives us a brief overview of an old camera-less process.
Always be careful when handling chemicals. Read the health and safety instructions.
Black and white photographic papers are used in this process. Some have reported that old, outdated papers work best. This might have to do with age of papers, but also with the emulsion types available years ago, but no longer manufactured.
In any event dig into your photo storage and take those forgotten 20 years old, fogged papers. Have fun with them. Both exposure and development are done with the UV light and sun is the best source.
Place a plant cutting on the paper and leave it in the sun for hours. My exposures vary from about 30 minutes to 4 hours. I place a piece of glass to slightly flatten the plant cutting. In the heat of the summer the photographic paper will get moist in the area of contact with the plant. That is one of the important aspects of producing color shifts. As the exposure progresses the paper will darken.
Papers
Try different brands and types of photographic papers. My examples here are made on fiber base, Forte warm tone paper. Typically warm tone papers will produce most interesting color combinations.
Development - none!
After exposure I soak the print for a few minutes in water and then tone if needed. Gold and platinum toners work best for me. I fix in a dilute solution of ammonium thiosulfate. The print will bleach considerably at this point. Toning, especially gold toning helps preserve the delicate colors of the original. Wash the print according to B&W archival standards and admire your artwork.
For some of the best examples look at work of Jerry Burchfield.
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Historical photographic methods in use today - the art, processes and techniques of alternative photography
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