my 1st post, be gentle: hillotypes

Just found this forum, and seems like a great place for my simple (ish) question: theoretically, what would/should one do with a color hillotype? sell it? store it? donate it? test it? as far as I know, most are currently residing in the Smithsonian, but perhaps not all of them.

If you are not certain of your ability to properly care for it, I would make an appointment with the conservators of a major museum and A: verify that it is in fact a Hillotype, and if it is genuine, donate it for a fat tax write-off, or B: contact Sothebys and/or Christies auction houses and see about putting it in a sale. They're very rare beasts so I think valuation would be hard to determine but it would definitely be valuable.

Welcome to APUG, doctorno. Though I can't help you with the Hillotype, I can say welcome aboard. This is a great place to ask questions you think others might find simple. I have found very few here who are not willing to answer a simple question in a civil and helpful way––with a refreshing lack of attitude.

TheFlyingCamera said:

If you are not certain of your ability to properly care for it, I would make an appointment with the conservators of a major museum and A: verify that it is in fact a Hillotype, and if it is genuine, donate it for a fat tax write-off, or B: contact Sothebys and/or Christies auction houses and see about putting it in a sale. They're very rare beasts so I think valuation would be hard to determine but it would definitely be valuable.

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Thanks for your response - it's n by Levi Hill; it's by someone who succeeded at reproducing Hill's work around 30 years ago. And while it's pretty effectively stored today, it's not a longterm solution. I have no true guess re: its worth, but the Sothebys
approach is interesting...If I decided to donate it, any thoughts of an appropriate museum home? FYI the Smithsonian already holds its sister image so they are not interested - havent inquired anywhere else.

Hello and a warm welcome to APUG. I wish I can help you, but I don't I know much about Hillotype.

Jeff

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Welcome To APUG Doctorno !

Thanks: I Learned Something New Today !

Ron
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A good question.
Luckily, I have a few thoughts on the answer.

While it is nice, for future students of the process and history, to have similar materials in a single collection or a single geographical area, this is not my favorite solution.

First of all, wars and natural disasters happen.

Secondly, for large institutes such an item would be just another number in a long list of numbers, while at a smaller place, it might be more likely to be displayed and displayed more often.

Thirdly, in this case, I think that in a way, the process is perhaps more important than the image per se....

Recreation being what it is, the image is (a sort of) proof,
but the process used to produce the recreation must be more important than any single image produced by it.

Lastly, (I am sleep typing) it would be nice to "celebrate"
both the process, and it's recreator
rather than incresing the wealth of an institute already up to it's armpits in gold dust.

A few thoughts from the sleeping typist...

Ray

Ray Rogers said:

A good question.
Luckily, I have a few thoughts on the answer.

While it is nice, for future students of the process and history, to have similar materials in a single collection or a single geographical area, this is not my favorite solution.

First of all, wars and natural disasters happen.

Secondly, for large institutes such an item would be just another number in a long list of numbers, while at a smaller place, it might be more likely to be displayed and displayed more often.

Thirdly, in this case, I think that in a way, the process is perhaps more important than the image per se....

Recreation being what it is, the image is (a sort of) proof,
but the process used to produce the recreation must be more important than any single image produced by it.

Lastly, (I am sleep typing) it would be nice to "celebrate"
both the process, and it's recreator
rather than incresing the wealth of an institute already up to it's armpits in gold dust.

A few thoughts from the sleeping typist...

Ray

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Appreciate the observations Ray.

I agree that the top objective shouldn't be to 'get paid' (although we all have our price lol..). Far more important should be a guarantee for the protection/longevity of the image, the appreciation of Hill's process, and the effort that was undertaken to reproduce that process. Storing it in some warehouse a la Indiana Jones as merely Item #534-9586 wouldn't feel appropriate either. Periodic public display, long-term curation, and respect/appreciation for it's importance to the history of the art (as well as concrete proof of Hill's process) - that sounds fitting to me.

Unfortunately, as I'm not familiar with - well - ANY parts of this world (rare photographic images/antiquities/museum collections/you name it), this will obviously be a learning process!

doctorno said:

Thanks for your response - it's n by Levi Hill; it's by someone who succeeded at reproducing Hill's work around 30 years ago..

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Hill says, in part, "Photography professor and historian Joseph Boudreau compounded the archaic chemistry and replicated the techniques described by Hill in A Treatise on Heliochromy in 1981, and was able to recreate Hillotype plates in distinct, verifiable, muted colors, including red, green, blue, yellow, magenta, and orange; these colors were all produced by the action of light alone, without the application of dyes or pigments."

Prof_Pixel said:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Hill says, in part, "Photography professor and historian Joseph Boudreau compounded the archaic chemistry and replicated the techniques described by Hill in A Treatise on Heliochromy in 1981, and was able to recreate Hillotype plates in distinct, verifiable, muted colors, including red, green, blue, yellow, magenta, and orange; these colors were all produced by the action of light alone, without the application of dyes or pigments."

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ding-ding; we have a winner!

Actually Prof Pixel, I knew all that - I'm his son

I'd be interested in seeing how a recreated Hillotype looks. Could you post a scan of one image?

do a quick google image search for 'Boudreau Hillotype' and it's the first result that pops up. The online image is pretty decent, but in reality the colors are a bit more evident, especially the blue on the vase and the orange of the petals. (the online image is NOT of the Hillotype I possess, but it's from the same set, ie vase & flowers)

As a thought for who to approach about it, do you know if the George Eastman House has any of your father's work? They're certainly the pre-eminent photography museum here in the US. If not them, perhaps the Getty out in Los Angeles. Also, out of curiosity, when you say "The Smithsonian", which museum in particular are you speaking of? The Smithsonian is a very large institution with many museums. There is the National Gallery of Art (which is actually NOT part of the Smithsonian), the Museum of American Art/National Portrait Gallery (probably the best museum in DC for exhibiting photography at this time), the Hirshorn Museum (modern art, with a fair photography collection) and the Renwick (American arts and crafts - dunno about their photography collection if any, but they might be worth a shot). Non-Smithsonian collections here in Washington DC worth approaching would include the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Phillips Collection. In New York, the obvious choices would be the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOMA, and ICP. Also think about universities - RISD (Rhode Island School of Design), Maryland Institute College of Art, etc.

Given that your father's Hillotype is not in fact an "original" Hillotype but a reconstruction of the process, perhaps a science museum would be a better choice to approach. They might have greater interest in it as a material object, and would be willing to pay (perhaps even pay more) for something that an art museum might pass on.

TheFlyingCamera said:

As a thought for who to approach about it, do you know if the George Eastman House has any of your father's work? They're certainly the pre-eminent photography museum here in the US. If not them, perhaps the Getty out in Los Angeles. Also, out of curiosity, when you say "The Smithsonian", which museum in particular are you speaking of? The Smithsonian is a very large institution with many museums. There is the National Gallery of Art (which is actually NOT part of the Smithsonian), the Museum of American Art/National Portrait Gallery (probably the best museum in DC for exhibiting photography at this time), the Hirshorn Museum (modern art, with a fair photography collection) and the Renwick (American arts and crafts - dunno about their photography collection if any, but they might be worth a shot). Non-Smithsonian collections here in Washington DC worth approaching would include the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Phillips Collection. In New York, the obvious choices would be the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOMA, and ICP. Also think about universities - RISD (Rhode Island School of Design), Maryland Institute College of Art, etc.

Given that your father's Hillotype is not in fact an "original" Hillotype but a reconstruction of the process, perhaps a science museum would be a better choice to approach. They might have greater interest in it as a material object, and would be willing to pay (perhaps even pay more) for something that an art museum might pass on.

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Interesting thoughts. I know he was involved with the George Eastman House, and that they have worked with the Smithsonian (Museum of American History, as a matter of fact, is where Hill's and my father's work are currently) to examine the hillotypes, and Getty has as well. So those are possibilities. The Corcoran originally exhibited 2 of my father's works (on loan) about 20 years ago, so that's another option I was already thinking of. RISD resonates as well, as that's where my father got his MFA. And I've just noticed they host a substantial art museum as well...hmmm.

I was a student of your father when he taught in Duluth; and cherish three of his prints, two B&W and one color. I had a 4th but gave it to a fellow student of your dad. I am also one of the two students that helped move your household effects and his darkroom to the East Coast back in 1981. Was very sorry to hear of his passing.

Hillotype process

The Hillotype is perhaps the oddest duck of all the color processes. Reverend Hill did something few people have ever done in history: he invented a process literally decades more advanced than all of civilization's knowledge. It would take a half-century before the rest of the world caught up to his achievement. There are very few similar examples in history: Charles Babbage designed a computer central processing unit, (which he called an "Analytical Engine"), in 1837; Jules Verne described a spaceship in 1865; the Amazon Indians could etch metal in the 1500's. Just as precocious as these feats, Rev. Levi Hill invented a permanent, natural color process which allowed him to take color photographs before the Civil War.

It seems that Hill was working largely by instinct when he produced his first colored images. Other photographers thought he was a fraud and violently tried to debunk his claim. Unfortunately, Hill had hand-colored parts of some of his photographs and his enemies seized upon those examples as evidence that he had not invented an automatic process, he was merely trying to pass off hand-colored images as a true color process. Hill had written a book describing his method, but angry competitors threatened to destroy his lab and got a court order to destroy all the copies of his book because Hill had libeled them. Hill died in 1865.

Fortunately, several dozen of his color photographs, "Hillotypes", survive and are kept at the Smithsonian Institution. In addition, some copies of Hill's book which described his procedure, "A Treatise on Heliochromy" (1851) still exist. In 1981 a professor of photography, Joseph Boudreau used the book to reproduce Hill's process. Boudreau wrote an essay about his effort and created several color photographs which were reprinted in an anthology about photography, (I forget the title).


From Boudreau's explanation and the color prints he made it seems to me that Hill had managed both to color-sensitize a daguerreotype plate and to produce a final color print by a kind of "dye-bleach" process. Actually, it was more of a "pigment-bleach" process. Apparently Hill took a normal daguerreotype unexposed plate--which is silver metal on copper plate--and subjected it to various acids and chemicals which would chemically tone the plate. Since the blue color ultimately produced looks like a cyanotype I think he partly toned the plate Prussian Blue. Other chemicals toned the plate a faint red. The mixture of all the tones produced a dark gray plate which was then made ready for exposure in the camera by turning the silver into a silver halide via an acid bath. Exposures could take thirty minutes on a sunny day. The plates were then developed according to the daguerreotype recipe which produced a direct positive.


Imagine that toning covers the plate completely with specks of colored grains of toner. A speck of Prussian Blue would press against the light sensitive surface of the silver halide. Since the speck is blue/green in color it must reflect blue/green light into our eyes; therefore, it must absorb red light. When red light falls upon the speck of Prussian Blue the speck absorbs energy from the red light and injects electrons into the light-sensitive silver halide, causing this pixel of the plate to be exposed. To develop as a daguerreotype the exposed plate is held over a bowl of heated mercury and the mercury atoms adhere to the exposed silver halide. Since the mercury atoms are whiter in color, any place where light has struck appears lighter than the background. The mercury atoms will blot out the Prussian Blue speck in a similar manner, so any place where red light has fallen the Prussian Blue specks will be turned white and the surrounding red-colored specks will stay red, leaving the pixel mainly red in color. A similar reaction occurs with other colors of light. The final plate is an amalgam of mercury, silver and the chemicals which make up the colored specks of the toning.


Hillotypes have survived over 150 years. Probably the methods used to preserve daguerreotypes are suitable for them.