Dave and Don
Todd Gangler uses a image setter for his negs, CMYK, up until a few years ago , not sure if that is the case today
John Bentley an old friend of mine in Toronto, prints Ultrastabe and in fact he and Todd were given the **info ** on how to presensitize the tissue. He use to get his film from Todd and then registered himself, not sure if he found a local scanner , image setter person here in Toronto yet.
Both print onto a melemex type matereial in reverse and then transfer onto heavy weight paper in one pass.
I spent a week printing ultra stable onto Melemex at Main Photo workshops a life time ago .
The set up was very hokey at Maine and the conditions to print unrealistic which was a very bad first experience with the process.
At that time the fact you needed to go to a separator for scans, and output really turned me off and I never persued the process.
The guy who taught the class produced in Practice, as good density, colour and contrast as anything I have seen from T Gangler or J Bentley, basically his photography was not as impressive.
I do not remember his name, but Charles Berger supplied all the material needed and it is indeed a simple process to learn. But you do need the right humidity , temp, registration, working room to produce work that equals Gangler or Bentley.
The trick to my thinking, or snag is the issue of making your own tissue and then controlling the sensitizing of the tissue at time of printing, this throws in a whole can of whoopass for any worker.
Richard Sullivan of B&S is indeed trying to make the presensitized tissue and has a small beta group in NM working with him.
THIS IS THE NUT OF IT ALL, HOW TO MAKE PRESENSITIZED TISSUE, ONCE OR IF HE SOLVES THIS ISSUE , ITS A VERY BIG DEAL IN MAKING THE PRINTING WORKFLOW A PREDICTALBE PROCESS.
I hope Sandy dosen't mind, but in his living room there are a couple of very good tri colour carbons that predate both T Gangler and J Bentley and the Ultra Stable process. I am sure Sandy sensitized at time of printing and made his own tissues, but I will leave that for him to chip in if he wants.
I have seen the fressons and you are right Dave they do not equal T Ganglers or J Bentleys work for photographic reality, but they are quite beautiful on their own. I would suggest what is impressive is the full photographic quality of their work and if that is what one is aiming for then I think the Ultra Stable Process stands out.
I should point out some the best work I ever saw in this multiple colour printing was Steven Livik's multiple gum carnaval series., in fact it has always perplexed me why he did not persue this type of image presentation as I was totally blown away with the quality.
It has been years since I saw his prints., for a long time they were hanging in a Toronto Camera Shop and I always tried to buy them from unsuspecting camera salesman , who thought the work was shit.
What is significant to this discussion for me at least is the use of the K mask to produce top quality work and the problem of sensitising the colour tissues for carbon work. I now have the scanners , registration, output devices for film and see the pre sensitizing the tissue the only issue. Until someone smarter than me can solve this I am onto cmyk GUM and happy to do so . I am really hoping this discussion will spark some interest in workers to look into multiple colour carbon and maybe figure out the sensitizing issue of the tissue.
Don I got my strosser on my Trip to SC and am a really happy camper, remember all the plate burners have a rubber blanket to allow the pins to sink and keep the film in wonderful contact, once this is figured out picking the type of pin set up that will work with your exposing unit becomes pretty easy.
I like the Strosser because allows for a thick punch , is very robust, I like the oblong , circle , oblong punch that allows for some breathing room when laying down the films, and the pins go nicely in a Nuark exposing system.
One thing that I should say and wonder how all you feel.
I have seen a lot of work over the years in Alt process and I have to say the best work I seem to gravitate to or like is the smooth papers and not the heavy weight papers.
With that in mind mounting the paper to melemix or aluminum and then printing directly to the paper like Mr Penns work is IMHO the very best way to go.
I think a much more detailed , bold print can be made, not dissing the warm and fuzzy pics but that is my personal choice.
Off to Philedelphia in a couple of weeks to pick Christina Andersons brain on the the basic set up on tri colour gum. Taking two other workers with me and hope to get an good overview of the requirements to make gum.
(To me, they lean to the pictorial(!) side...)