Join the world of photographers passionate about the old photographic processes and take part in our workshop devoted to monochromatic gumprinting. Here you will discover the magic of the old processes, of photographs literally painted with a brush on pre-reated paper. Of photographs as painterly as no other prints, subtle and yet powerful. you will learn the trade of masters such as Steichen or Demachy. Gum bichromate is one of the oldest photographic techniques, older than the silver gellatine print most of us know. At the same time it is a pictorial technique, allowing the photographer a considerable degree of freedom of manipulation while creating the final print and thus enabling him to create visual effects unavailable in other techniques. It was, one could argue, created as an antidote to the mechanical perfection of reproduction and lack of ability to manipulate the resulting image in the other early photographic processes and as such it still works perfectly in the age of mechanical perfection of digital photography. As it requires much more work than silver or iron based techniques, gumprint was, with time, almost entirely replaced by the much less time consuming silver gellatine print which, in turn, lost its position to digital images. Yet today, when we have become tired of the super saturated, technically perfect digital images, gumprint has once more proved to be a perfect solution. Gum bichromate prints are unique and even their author is unable to make an identical copy; a quality that makes gumprints highly collectible and increases their value. The time and work required to create a single print also foster a special emotional reaction with...
Pictorial photography – gumprint is one of the richest, most complete gumprinting workshops covering all key aspects of both monochromatic and colour gumprintng. Despite the fact over a hundred years have passed since its heyday, pictorial photography is still immensely popular, one could actually say it enjoys a revival. Pictorial pictures are delicate, romantic with this unmistakeable note of dreaminess and nostalgy. Many photographers, more or less consciously, try to stay within pictorial aesthetics, whether their photography is digital or classical, as this often leads to the creation of interesting photographs. Unfortunately, digitally made pictorial photographs hardly ever can match up to the original work of masters, at least partly due to the limitations of the technique itself. Our four day workshop will offer an opportunity to come closer to the original methods of the Old Masters as the pictures created during it will be made using similar equipment and techniques. Unlike most workshops devoted to gumprinting, this is a complete course with intensive practice covering all issues connected with gumprinting. This means we will not only cover monochromatic gumprinting but also making full colour prints and combining gumprint with iron based processes. The programme of our four-day workshop covers: an overview of the work of most important pictorialists/gumprinters, review/introduction of the most important pictorial techniques, especially gum bichromate, cyanotype and platinum combined with gumprint preparing papers for gumprinting, practical work on making a monochromatic picture; both single and multi-layered, learning to manipulate the gumprinted image, practical work on making full colour gumprints, making prints using the combination of cyanotype and gumprint, an overview of photographs taken during the...
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