DARK RooM

New Year ...

ALCHEMICAL CRADLE

Waiting for the magical effect.

HAVING examined carefully the plate of glass, and removed from its surface any adhering fibre or dust, take it in the left hand, holding it with the forefinger and thumb by the upper left-hand corner, and with the bottle of iodized collodion in the other hand, pour from the bottle on to the glass, towards the upper right-hand corner, such a quantity of the solution as will run in a body freely.

Whilst pouring the iodized collodion on to the glass, tilt the glass slightly towards the upper right-hand corner, and when this is reached, incline the glass to the upper left-hand corner, but not touching it, to avoid coming in contact with the thumb of the left hand; this corner passed, run the iodized collodion down towards the lower left-hand corner, and finally incline the glass to the lower right-hand corner, at the same time holding the glass upright over the neck of the bottle (which should be retained in the right hand whilst the operation is going on), to allow the superfluous collodion to drain off into the bottle; during the time it is draining, move the plate vertically backwards and forwards over the neck of the bottle, to prevent the furrowed appearance the film is likely to assume if allowed to drain quietly to the lower right-hand corner.

To perform the above operation with certainty, requires a steady hand, and some little practice. After the glass has drained for a few seconds, and the collodion has ceased running from the plate, it should be immersed in the exciting bath; from five to twenty seconds may elapse between the two operations; if the drying is prolonged, the sensibility and evenness of the coating are injured, and the iodide of silver is liable to be thrown out from the film on to its surface.

Very often, in dry, hot weather, the plate will require to be immersed in the exciting bath directly the film has set; if the plate has been allowed to dry too much, the iodide from the upper part of the plate will most likely be thrown out on to the surface of the film, and be washed away by the liquid in the exciting bath. Care should be taken not to breathe upon the surface of the glass during the operation of pouring on the iodized collodion.

OXIDE OF SILVER.

Sym: AG + O.

Eq. 116. Silver 108 + Oxygen 8

Oxide of silver can be obtained from a solution of nitrate of silver, by the addition of a solution of pure potassa, or soda; oxide of silver is set free and falls as an insoluble brown powder; it should be repeatedly washed to remove all traces of the excess of potassa, or soda,and the nitrate of the alkali formed. After washing, it should be thrown upon a clean linen filter to drain, and afterwards dried; or it can be preserved in a moist state in a wide-mouthed bottle.

CHLORIDE OF SILVER.

Sym: AG + C.

Eq. 144. Silver 108 + Chlorine 36

Chloride of silver is most conveniently formed by the addition of a solution of common salt, (chloride of sodium,) to a solution of nitrate of silver. It falls readily as a white precipitate, and should be repeatedly washed, to free it from the excess of common salt, and the nitrate of soda formed during the process. After washing, it may be collected on a linen filter, and subjected to pressure to free it from moisture, and then dried, or it may be preserved in a moist state. It is soluble in ammonia, hyposulphite of soda, iodide and cyanide of potassium.

SEPTEMBER LIGHT ...

AMBROTYPE  1860

Watermelon please, EDWARDIAN PIC NIC

Russia 1908 by Tamara Antipina 

Maine USA 1894 found the gilded victorians


MEANWHILE SUMMER

Here I am. Engaged by publishers.

Mission Héliographiques

HENRI LE SECQ e Le STRYGE su NOTRE DAME de PARIS 1853
 épreuve sur papier salé
à partir d’un négatif papier ciré sec
32,5X23 cm, Musée
d’Orsay.

It is one of the most-known
masterpieces of Charles Nègre. This photography was taken on the
rooftop of Notre-Dame and shows his friend Henri Le Secq, framed
between two gargoyles. The character contemplate Paris dressed
casually and wearing a top hat. The mouldings of the building where
he stands are very detailed.

The geometrisatic presentation and abstraction work
is here obvious. The diagonal of the barricades, the horizontal wall
and the two sculptures enlivened by this clever production make of
this photography a masterpiece.

Charles Nègre à Notre-Dame de Paris, 1853,
épreuve sur papier salé à partir d’un négatif papier ciré
sec, Paris, Bibliothèque des arts décoratifs, Médiathèque de
l’architecture & du patrimoine.

Here, the atmosphere is completely different.This last photography taken by Le Secq, can bring a
parallel to the work done with the Stryge.
 Charles Nègre is hidden in the shadows and is
only visible for his white collar. This gives a disturbing feeling
and remind us of Victor Hugo Notre-Dame de Paris published
twenty years before. If this photography is interesting by the
production, it does not capture the observer by its work of geometry,
but reminds us of Charles Nègre work on street photography.

Henri Le Secq
 was a French painter and photographer. After the French government made the daguerreotype open for public in 1839, Le Secq was one of the five photographers selected to carry out a photographic survey of architecture (Commission des Monuments Historiques)

He experimented with various photograph processing techniques together with his colleague Charles Nègre and later worked with Gustave Le Gray learning the waxed-paper negative process. This process had the advantage that it produced negatives unlike the daguerreotype process. He, along with Hippolyte Bayard, Edouard Baldus, Gustave Le Grayand Auguste Mestral (O. Mestral), was sent on Missions Héliographiques to document famous architectural monuments in France.

 He worked mainly on cathedrals in Chartres, Strasbourg, Reims and near Paris. Cameras capable of taking large photographs, sized up to 51 cm by 74 cm, were used. His works during this Commission des Monuments Historiques are considered his finest.

In 1851 he became one of the founders of the first photographic organization of the world, the Société héliographique (1851–1853), which was very short lived

In 1851, the Commission des Monuments Historiques, an agency of the French government, selected five photographers to make photographic surveys of the nation’s architectural patrimony. These Missions Héliographiques, as they were called, were intended to aid the Paris-based commission in determining the nature and urgency of the preservation and restoration of work required at historic sites throughout France. The French rail network was still in its infancy and many of the commissioners had never visited the monuments in their care; photography promised a record of such sites that would be produced more quickly and accurately than the architectural drawings on which they had previously relied.

Édouard Baldus

, Hippolyte Bayard,

Gustave Le Gray

, Henri Le Secq, and Auguste Mestral—were all members of the fledgling Société Héliographique, the first photographic society. Each was assigned a travel itinerary and detailed list of monuments. Baldus was sent south and east to photograph the

Palace of Fontainebleau

, the medieval churches of Lyon and other towns in the Rhône valley, and the Roman monuments of Provence, including the Pont du Gard, the triumphal arch at Orange, the Maison Carrée in Nîmes, and the amphitheater at Arles.

Gustave Le Gray, already recognized as a leading figure on both the technical and artistic fronts of French photography, was sent southwest, to the famed châteaux of the Loire Valley—Blois, Chambord, Amboise, and Chenonceaux, among others—to the small towns and 

Romanesque churches

 along the pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela, and through the Dordogne. Le Gray traveled with Mestral and photographed sites on his old friend and protégé’s list, including the fortified town of Carcassonne (not yet “restored” by Viollet-le-Duc), Albi, Perpignan, Le Puy, Clermont-Ferrand, and other sites in south-central and central France. On occasion, the two worked hand-in-hand, for a few photographs are signed by both photographers.

Henri Le Secq was sent north and east to the great 

Gothic cathedrals

 of Reims, Laon, Troyes, and Strasbourg, among others. And Hippolyte Bayard, the only one of the five to have worked with glass—rather than paper—negatives (and thus, the only one whose negatives no longer survive), was sent west to towns in Brittany and Normandy, including Caen, Bayeux, and Rouen.

This first act of government patronage of the new art was heralded in the pages of La Lumière, the official organ of the Société Héliographique, with an announcement in the June 29 issue, and the itineraries were published in its pages soon after. The five photographers carried out their missions in the summer and fall of 1851, returning to Paris with portfolios of prints and negatives to show their fellow practitioners. Hopes were high as they handed in 258 photographs to the government, but disappointment followed. Critic Francis Wey lamented that when the photographers completed their missions, the Commission des Monuments Historiques “congratulated them, received their negatives and locked them in a drawer, neither authorizing nor even tolerating their publication. The public is thus deprived of these prints…; the photographers are denied the publicity they hoped for, and our country fails to do justice to the most beautiful work yet produced.”

Today, the bulk of the negatives (excepting Bayard’s) are on deposit at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and numerous prints survive in the archives descended from the Commission des Monuments Historiques. Mission Héliographique prints by Baldus, Bayard, and Le Secq are exceedingly rare, while the somewhat greater presence of prints from Le Gray’s and Mestral’s missions suggests that these photographers may have made two sets of negatives—one for the government, and one for themselves.

Department of Photographs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Vue de la Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris,
(1853), épreuve sur papier salé d’après un négatif papier,
24,5X33 cm, Collection privée. 

This photography shows us the Cathedral in the time

where the pediments of the facade were under construction according

to the Violet-le-Duc plans. It is a testimony of the building

renovation as we know it.

Charles Nègre choice of framing required a certain

preparation. He positioned himself at a higher point, certainly acceding to a balcony in order to take this picture.

 The photography doesn’t lack of depth and we can see on both sides, the city of Paris

expanding over the horizon. Once again, there is a strong contrast

between the sky, alway burned, and the darkness of the lower part of

the image. As if the cathedral were rising towards the light.

 Charles Nègre controls both the framing and the contrast in order to

translate the monumental aspect of this cathedral.

 Yet, this frontal image doesn’t show the depth of the monument and makes it seem as if

it was a stage setting.

It may seem anachronistic to present Charles Nègre as a social photographer, as social photography, investigation photography and communication photography on social problems will only be known at the end of the 19th century. Nevertheless, his approach of photography and the ameliorations that he will bring to the photographic

technique, make him without a doubt one of the founding fathers of this

movement.

Born in May, 9th 1820 in

the French city of Grasse, he takes drawing lessons at Aix-en-Provence in 1937.

He is accepted at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1939, at the same

time that Louis Daguerre presented to the public his invention, inspired on

Niepce’s work. He works in Paul Delaroche studio and presents his work to

different parisian salons until 1953. He will also study under

the direction of Ingres and Drolling before opening his first studio at 21 Quai

Bourbon, on the Saint-Louis Island in Paris.

He starts to work with the new

medium that is photography in 1844 encouraged by his master Paul Delaroche. He

realizes daguerreotypes that he will use as a source of inspiration and a model

for the realization of his paintings. In 1848 he spends a few months in

Barbizon along with other artists and works in portraits and nudes. The

photography takes a more and more important place in his artistic creations.

Charles Nègre works with different

photographic techniques invented in his time and contributes to the

amelioration of Niepce technique of photogravure using a passage to a gold bath

(demasquinure heliographic), an innovation allowing to reunite the fineness and

precision of photography and the firmness and depth using engraving tints. He

will be rewarded during the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1867 for this

innovation.