If you are an artist working in these processes, or an historian itching to tell us more about one of these, or about one not listed here, please email us.

We are very interested in more information about this – titbits or thesises, anything you want to share!

Abration tone

William Mortensen’s abrasion tone has much in common with other forgotten processes in that the materials needed are no longer as common as they once were, especially projection papers such as the former Eastman Kodak Projection Proof. This had a surface that accepted razor blade etching, pencil work and pumice work. It was also great for oils, I worked out a simple version of mediobrome that I was pleased with.

- comment from Norm

Allotype

See Amphitype.

Amphitype

Starting in the 1850s, as an alternative term for collodion direct positives (ambrotypes). Suggested to Herschel by Talbot, instead of Herschel’s initial Celanotype, or Allotype.

Argentotype

Invented by Sir John Herschel, like many other processes. Iron salts (ferric citrate) are used to precipitate silver under the influence of UV-light. The print is developed in silver nitrate. This process was later modified to become what is now the more known Kallitype and Vandyke process.

Atrephograph

The Atrephograph was invented by James M. Letts.

Aurotype

Part of the Siderotype family. Siderotypes are processes using iron.

Autochrome

1904 in France. Auguste and Louis Luminere inveted the Autochrome process. A glass plate was dusted with microscopic grains of potato startch that had been dyed red-orange, green and blue-violet. Any spaces were then filled in with a powder of black carbon. A panchromatic emulsion was then applied to the plate. The plate then exposed and developed, exposed, developed, exposed and re-developed again, forming a postitive transparency. In the 30s more sophisticated film became available and the Autochrome process died out.

Breath print

Part of the Siderotype family. Siderotypes are processes using iron.

Brown line

Part of the Siderotype family. Siderotypes are processes using iron.

Calotype

Introduced in 1841 by Fox Talbot and used for about 10 years after. A weak salt solution was used, the paper dried, then brushed with a weak silver nitrate solution. This made a silver chloride on the paper and was light sensitive. The final image was fixed using a salt solution called potassium iodide of hypo.

Catalisotype

This process used hydrochloric acid, syrup of ioduret of iron, iodine and nitrate of silver.

Celanotype

See Amphitype.

Chlorophyll prints

Binh Dahns photosynthesis process. Binh says:
One summer, I was motivated to experiment with photosynthesis and its pigments after watching the lawn change color due to a water hose that was placed on it. Soon after that observation, I was making chlorophyll prints. Photosynthesis takes place in plants as carbon dioxide, water, and light energy is converted to sugars and oxygen. Photosynthesis is the main route by which free energy in the environment is made available to the living world. In my work, photosynthesis is used to record images onto leaves. The leaves are then cast in resin, like biological samples for scientific studies. The images were made into negatives. Then exposed onto living leaves, by placing the negatives onto the leaf, and placing that into a contact printing frame. The image formation was all due to chlorophyll, light, carbon dioxide, and water: the life source of plants and, consequently the Earth. This process deals with the idea of elemental transmigration: the decomposition and composition of matter into other forms.

Chromotype

Coat paper with a sulphate of copper and bichromate of potash solution and expse it to sunshine, then apply a solution of silver nitrate.

Cyanotype Rex

Terry King and Michael Maunder have done some experiments with Cyanotypes, going back to it’s source. Reading the original paper Writer / Sir John Herschel in 1842 – available at the Royal Society in London – lead to a "retro-invention" of the cyanotype process. King calls this invention "Cyanotype Rex" and Maunder’s take on the process is called "Herschelotype". According to an article in View Camera, November 2005, the Cyanotype Rex has much shorter exposure times than the other recipes and tones well.

Ferro-gallic process

1861 Alphonse Louis Poitevin, french chemist. Found the reduction and conversion of ferric salts to a ferrous state when exposed to UV-light. A graphic technique, producing very black images. Gum arabic + water + ferric chloride + ferric sulphate + tartaric acid. The mix is applied, dried and contact printed in UV-light, then developed in gallic acid, potash alum and hydrochroric acid, washed and dried.

Ferro-tannic process

Iron salts (ferrous sulfate) turn black when exposed to tannic acid, potassium dichromate and water mixed, paper was coated and dried, then exposed in contact frame and washed. Toned in tannic acid to create a black print.

Ferrotype

Originally called Energiatype. The process uses proto-sulphate of iron as a reducing agent. Same as Tintype.

Fluorotype

Paper is washed with bromide of potassium and with fluate of soda.

Herschelotype

A variation on Cyanotype Rex by Michael Maunder.

Ivorytype / Hellenotype

A picture produced by superposing a very light print, rendered translucent by varnish, and tinted upon the back, upon a stronger print, so as to give the effect of a photograph in natural colors.

Kelaenotype

Part of the Siderotype family. Siderotypes are processes using iron.

Kwik-Print

Kwik-Print was a late-’70s technique involving coating a plastic
receptor sheet with light-sensitive dyes. You washed off the unexposed areas and could re-coat the sheet with another color. Bea Nettles was its most renowned practitioner and she has published Breaking the Rules: A Photo Media Cookbook. Tom says: "I’m sure Kwik-Print is long gone but I had fun with it".

- contributed by Tom Nelson

Nakahara’s process

Part of the Siderotype family. Siderotypes are processes using iron.

Orotones

Traditionally called orotones, goldtones, or Curt-tones, the images would have been made by printing a positive image onto a sheet of glass coated with a photosensitive emulsion. The image on the glass was then backed with a mixture of banana oils and gold bronzing powder.
23.5K gold powder is what I’ve added in exchange of the bronzing powder. The process of coating glass sheets with photographic emulsion, printing and processing the image and coating it with gold, is all done by hand.
Edward Curtis, photographer of the American Indians and one who perfected the orotone (he called them Curt-Tones), is quoted as saying this of the process:
"The Ordinary Photographic print, however good, lacks depth and transparency, or more strictly speaking, Translucency. We all know how beautiful are the stones and pebbles in the limpid brook of the forest. Where the water absorbs the blue of the sky and the green of the foliage, yet when we take the same iridescent pebbles from the water and dry them they are dull and lifeless, so it is with the ordinary photographic print, but in the Curt-Tones (orotone) all the transparency is retained and they are full of life and sparkle as an opal."

- contributed by Ryan Zoghlin, photograph by Ryan Zoghlin

Pannotypes

Pannotypes are large format tintypes exposed on tissue or wood, often handcolored. An old “folk-art tradition”, especially in the USA.

Pellet print

Part of the Siderotype family. Siderotypes are processes using iron.

Phipson’s process

Part of the Siderotype family. Siderotypes are processes using iron.

Photoceramics

From Harry L Burnett Jr:
I have been working with photoceramics since mid 1950s. My first efforts were with toned wet collodion positives. Later I worked with light sensitive diazo compounds for a while. After retirement, I began to work with the dichromate dust-on process. This was productive and very informative. Images could be produced that held exqusite detail and were probably as permanent as any continous tone print process ever discovered, very time consuming and difficult to achieve consistant results. About 2-3 years ago I began an odyssey with digital printing hoping to make film positives that would give me better control of the dust-on process. I mixed digital inks that were useful and it evolved into a simple useful photoceramic process.

I am now able to digitally fuse metallic oxide images onto ceramic substraits at 1250 degrees F. with a resolution of 2880×720 spots per inch in monochrome colors.

Pizzitype

Captain Giuseppe Pizzighelli’s (1849-1912) Pizzitype paper (similar to Ziatype) was manufactured a short time and a commercial success until technical problems stopped the production.

Platinograph

Another name for, and the same as, the Kallitype process.

Polychrome

Another name for, and the same as, the Kallitype process.

Pontontype

Mongo Ponton (1801-1880), Scottish inventor. 1839 discovered that postassium bichromate was sensitive to light. He called his discovery Pontontype. A handome print that unfortunately faded with few months. But, this discovery was the beginning of gum bichromates! Thank you Ponton!

Rawlins process

From Philippe Berger:

G.E.H. Rawlins invented in 1904 a process by which a layer of bichromated gelatine was exposed to light under a negative.
The tanning of the gelatine is in direct proportion to the transparency of the negative. Shadow areas are strongly tanned, mid-tones less so and highlights are not tanned at all.

After development it is washed to produce an image with a very subtle relief. Using oily pigments, either in monochrome or colour, the original image is then restored by hand. The ink is absorbed by the tanned part of the image but is repelled by the water held in the soft, untanned areas.

This inking process with a brush is the adaptation of Rawlins at this process.

Philippe has also written a book on the process Le Procédé Rawlins à l’Huile, in french. More details of this book can be found on Philippe’s website.

The Rawlins process is the same as the oilprint process.

Satista

Another name for, and the same as, the Kallitype process.

Satista is an economical hybrid of platinum and silver. This process was created when the price of platinum was high.
It’s an economic way to produce images which look like platinum and are in between silver and platinum.Some people think that some of Stieglitz prints named platinum were Satista prints.

- comment from Ayral Philippe

Sensitol

Another name for, and the same as, the Kallitype process.

Sepiatype

Part of the Siderotype family. Siderotypes are processes using iron.

Siderotype

Siderotype covers all the iron-based processes – cyanotype, platinotype, chrysotype, etc. – it was used first by Herschel and comes from the Greek root word ‘sideros’, meaning ‘iron’. Siderotype therefor means any ‘iron-type’ print.

Soline

Another name for, and the same as, the Kallitype process.

Sphereotypes

Sphereotypes is a process patented (US patent #14,696 I believe) by Albert Bisbee in 1856. It was essentially a positive collodion image on glass that was exposed through a spherical mask – hence the name sphereotype – which was the same size as the mount that was to enclose it or case it was to be put into.

Talbotype

See ‘Calotype’.

Woodburytype

WB Woodbury (1834-85) invented this process, claiming it would not fade. Successfully. The do not fade, because the images do not rely on light-sensitive materials, but are made up of a stable pigment suspended in gelatine.

A book of information and inspiration!

Customer rating:

Rated 9,97 – based on 57 votes

• Read a review
• Download a preview of pages 5-9 of the book
• Artists represented in the book: 115. View full list
• 238 pages, full color
• Size on Lulu: 8.5 x 11 inches
• Size on Createspace: 8 x 10 inches
• ISBN on Lulu: None
• ISBN on Createspace: 978-1456444518
• Publisher: AlternativePhotography.com (2006)
• Press release
• Promotion card for the book
• Visit the press and promotions page

See it before you buy?

A copy of the book can bee seen at William Morris Hunt Memorial Library at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

About the book

Alternative Photography: Art and Artists, Edition I highlights the work of over 100 of today’s most active photographers working with alternative processes. Discover how the different processes create a unique look in a print, and get an insight into how the processes function. Here you will find both information and inspiration. Artists introduce themselves, their work and why they chose the qualities of that particular process.

From the introduction:

Today, when we have the technology to take the "perfect" photograph, freezing a moment exactly as it is, and are able to print it in minutes, many photographers take a step into the world of alternative processes. It may be out of curiosity of how the chemistry can bind a moment of time to the fibers in the paper. It may be out of the joy of making something by hand, from start to finish. It may be the delight in seeing an image emerging on paper floating in the developer bath. Or, it may be that a specific process embodies a unique texture, enhancing the idea or expression of the artist. The reasons for choosing to work in a specific alternative process are many and varied, but whatever the reason is, the journey there is often an enriching experience.

The interest in this book was bigger than I could have dreamt of. Over half of the artists represented on AlternativePhotography.com have participated (at the time of printing). Over 14 Gigabytes of pixels have been downloaded over the wires, in almost 1000 emails. I am now on a first name basis with the postman (postwoman actually!), who turned up with stacks of letters every day, especially in the last two weeks before the deadline.

Each of the artists here has included a little about themselves, their work and their choice of process. The images are a great inspiration. A wide variety of processes, concepts and ideas can be found here. To me, that too is pure inspiration, and that is the purpose of this book – to inspire.

About the editor

Malin Fabbri grew up in Sweden. She moved to London in her early twenties to study Design, English and Photography. Whilst earning an M.A. in Design studies at Central St. Martin’s School of Design, London, she discovered alternative photography, and wrote her thesis on the subject.

Finishing her degree and publishing her thesis felt more like a beginning than an end to Malin. She decided to combine her academic and practical experience and create a website. AlternativePhotography.com includes all alternative photographic processes in use by artists today. The website still maintains its origins as a source of information and research for alternative photographic processes.

Malin actively manages the expansion of the site as editor, and is an avid photographer herself. She makes her own alternative process prints and runs workshops. She is the co-author of Blueprint to cyanotypes – Exploring a historical alternative photographic process. Malin lives and works in Stockholm with her husband, Gary, and their son, Maximillian.

Feedback on "Art and Artists"

"The only published resource of its kind, Alternative Photography: Art and Artists, Edition I represents the forefront of a worldwide movement of individuals who have retaken control of photographic printing and imagery. The vibrant re-emergence of the laboratory/wet processing subculture alongside the digital darkroom is set to influence aesthetic and critical sensibilities throughout the art world. The art and artists series has come at precisely the right moment."

- Paul Daskarolis, Editor, Siderotype Quarterly

"I got my book, and it’s such a wonderful resource for when I teach alternative processes!"

- Nancy A. Breslin

"WOW! Nicely done. The book has inspired me to try other alternative process photography."

-Jane Linders

"I look forward to using this excellent book as a source of inspiration for my advanced photography students."

-Scott Wittenburg
advanced photography teacher, Upper Arlington High School

"It arrived quickly and is absolutely wonderful."

-Kris Haggblom

"I bought the book and its great. It’s a different experience to look at pictures in your hand then looking at them on a web site. My students have really enjoyed the book as well. It’s a fine product."

Chris Peregoy, Teacher of photography, University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)

"You did a wonderful job! You end your newsletter with "get inspired", well, all though I do my alternative processes for many years, I’m truly inspired by it."

-Jan van Leeuwen, photographer

"It exceeded my expectations, Thanks!"

- Suzanne Guinee, photographer

"I really like the variety of content and the photographs are reproduced at a nice size for viewing. I do like the book very much and will use it as a reference in addition to the website to become inspired."

- Mike Shipman, photographer

"The concept and content are exceptional. You have brought together both the technical description and the personal motivation of each artist working in a particular alt process. The styles of work represented, from traditional to experimental and everything in between, mixed within every conceivable process. I feel the book will become an important resource in our field (and for anyone with an interest in photographs), where else can you see this much work in so many different processes, working styles and get personal insight from each artist about their work."

- Edward Carpenter, Photographer

"While nothing beats seeing the work in real life the book provides an excellent resource for all of us in terms of the variety and depth of work being done in alternative processes."

- Hamish Stewart, photographer

"It’s not only beautifully produced with high quality reproductions of the images and a clean layout, but is filled with a panoply of alternative processes, some of which I’ve never seen before. A truly inspiring book and a great resource."

- Wendy Currie, photographic artist & workshop teacher

"The layout and design of the book is very presentable. It is good to see what other photographers are doing with thee processes and the standard of work, they are achieving."

- Lynette Zeeng, Photographer/Lecturer

"I am a collector of first edition books and will only purchase the book if it qualifies with the standards below in the text, believe me yours does! I was very worried when you talked about on demand printing but was pleasantly surprised when the books arrived."

- Dennis da Silva, Director and owner, Silvertone

"I have really enjoyed the book, and I will be showing it to students when I teach alternative processes. The layout and cover are clean and professional, and the variety and overall quality of work inside is so high."

- Nancy Breslin, Art Instructor, University of Delaware

"The book is an absolute credit to you. I am impressed with the layout – the quality of the printing and the reproduction of the book"

- Ellie Young, Photographer, Gold Street Studios

"I was really surprised and happy about the picture quality of the print and to see so much and excelent photography from all the artists. All in all: I have the book, I’m happy, facinated, inspired and would like to thank you for all this great work!"

- Tobias Ott

"It is a beautiful book, very nicely done and one to be quite proud of. It is a great sampling of artists."

-Kathy Wismer

"Impressive range of work, and a welcome sampling from many countries. It is an inspiring book."

- Nick Klimaszewski

"I love the book. It is a wonderful thing you have made for the world. What an undertaking and may it be a success. You rock girl."

- Crystal Jackson, Photographer

"I finally got a copy of the beautiful Arts and Artist coffee table book. It is most elegant and very unique. The quality is superior and of course the contents are marvlous! It does inspire, and with that, Congratulations to you and everyone who made this huge project possible. Great job!!! Rated 10 of 10."

- Allan Razo

"Art and Artists is an excellent summary of the work of practitioners of alternative processes."

- Gene Bagdonas

"The gallery on the website is such a useful source of information about the work of alternative photographers, but the work really needs to be on paper. And on the bookshelf, as a reference."

- Robert Hoare

"Very unique book, as a teacher my students love it and derive great inspiration from it. It encourages them to experiment and push the limits of conventional photography and also to get back into the darkroom and produce unique work."

- Tina