Unit 2 Essay

From the beginning of my project my aim has been to capture some of what remains of the architecture of the industrial era in an attempt to represent this period of time through modern digital technology and in this way make a connection between our current digital revolution and the industrial revolution of the 19^th & 20^th century.

This essay is a reflection on my two year journey into the project, on my learning, development and contextualization of ‘Industrialism brought forward’.

This is the link to the PDF file of my essay

Solar Plates for valves

Today after spending many hours in the UV exposure unit room I managed to expose the Solar plates for my photo intaglio process.

The printer at college wasn’t able to do more than one of my positives as the acrylic film kept getting stuck on the printer. I was working with the technician and we tried several times with a variation of settings but the same kept happening. I wasted a couple of days because of this mishap- not good.

Yesterday I got my new positives made in an Imagesetter by commercial printers. An imagesetter is a high resolution output device that can transfer electronic text and graphics directly to film, plates, or photo-sensitive paper. It uses a laser and a dedicated raster image processor (RIP) and is usually Postscript compatible. Unlike the resolution on a home printer, which is probably between 300 – 600 dots per inch (dpi), the resolution on a typical imagesetter is 1270 or 2540 dpi with a maximum dpi of 4000.

The very first time I did a successful plate, my positive was from a inkjet printer and the plate was exposed to an Aquatint Screen during 15 light units, then another 15 light units exposure of the positive and 3 min development.

Because my new positives where made in an imagesetter they are different to the previous one – the positive created with an inkjet lets some UV light through the denser black dots whilst the positive from an imagesetter has dead-black opaque dots -  I was told I would not need to use an Aquatint Screen. I exposed one plate for 15 light units to the positive of my image and then developed it for 3 minutes (following the settings of my first successful plate).

But it didn’t work, what should have happened is that the opaque dots of my image positive should have stopped the light going through giving me a less rich black. A rich black means a deep tooth on the polymer and many of these mean that the polymer may come out of the metal plate all together. But it is also truth that when developed too much polymer can came off the darker areas of the plate. As I developed my plate as long as the previous one I thought that I should try using the Aquatint Screen in the next exposure.

So, today I exposed the Solar Plates for 15 light units each to an Aquatint Screen, which is an 80% stochastic screen covered with tiny dots of random sizes, shapes and distribution. The dots are small enough not to be noticed on the finished print. Aquatint Screens are used to prepare Solarplates for intaglio printing.  The plates are first exposed to the screen so they are partially hardened. When they are exposed to the art work and developed, areas that were blocked from the light will still have enough photopolymer to hold the ink when it is applied, eliminating open areas or deep grooves that hold too much ink. Allowing the resulting print to show a wide variety of tones including rich, deep blacks.

I found some information about the history of Aquatint screens, artist Elisabeth Dove, who based her study in the research of printing with Ashahi glass by Keith Howard, developed her own aquatint screens and commercialised them in the US.

As advice, I read that if you want to increase the richness of blacks, darken your image and retain more detail, you should reduce the exposure time. Alternatively, if you have problems with grooves holding too much ink, or you want to lighten your image, or if there is too much polymer washing away (this is what happened the very first time I did a plate) the thing to do is to increase the exposure times.

As an experiment I did increase the exposure times for one of the Solar plates to 30 light units and didn’t use the Aquatint screen previously. Unfortunately the polymer still washed away from the plate, so I guess that the increasing exposure would only work to modify the lightness of your image. Due to the price of every Solar plate (£10) I decided to stop experimenting and stick with the exposure of Aquatint screen for 15 l.u. plus another 15 l.u. for the positive and then, once developed for 3 minutes and dried, I hardened them by exposing them to UV light for 30 l.u. I will let them dry for a week before inking them.

Stochastic Printing

I got some good results with the photopolymer plates. I bought a Toyobo Printight Solar Plate (KM73) which allows high resolution positives to be transferred to it. Because of this I was told that I could use a different way of printing the positives, called stochastic printing. [Stochastic is a mathematical term that means random, having to do with random variable/s involving probability or chance]. It differs from the conventional printing in the modulation. Conventional Printing is AM (amplitude modulation) and Stochastic printing is FM (frequency modulation)

• Amplitude Modulation. In printing, used to refer to conventional halftone printing techniques in which dots of various sizes (amplitude) are used to reproduce the tones and colors of a continuous tone image, with large dots used to reproduce the darker areas and smaller dots to reproduce the lighter areas.

• Frequency modulation. Used in printing to refer to stochastic printing techniques in which the number of dots, and sometimes their size as well, is changed to reproduce the different tones and colours in a continuous tone image, with relatively more, closely spaced dots used to reproduce dark areas and relatively fewer, more widely spaced dots used to reproduce light areas.

(information from ED NewPage and education)

So, I am going to try to produce this positives at collage although I heard that it maybe a little difficult as a highly developed program is needed in order to use complex algorithms to place the dots more or less often as required in order to reproduce the image with no determinable pattern. If the ripping program -raster image processor- Wasatch (which is the one we have at collage) can’t handle working with the inkjet printer in this manner then I’ll have to go to a commercial establishment to get it done. One more thing to think about is that although this process (FM) will give finer detail than the conventional method (AM) also it is quite unforgiving and imperfections will be more visible sometimes showing too much detail.

Print making

These are the first results from the print making sessions. Obviously they are not the results I am after. It was good to see the printed version of these plates as it gives me an indication on how to continue. I cannot use the vaporjet plates as they have been discontinued. This first test of the Solar Plate was not exposed to an aquatint screen, this is a necessary step that allows the darker tones to be edged in the developing process. As a consequence of not using it,  the black areas were peeled off the plate.  Also the chemicals of the plate were not allowing it to dry properly, they were still sticky after a week. A very sticky plate means it wasn’t exposed long enough but I have been told that this plates were actually faulty. Another thing is that the positive I used was of 45 lpi. and I have found out that the plates can handle a much finer resolution. I’ll use a different positive with my next batch of prints.

Anyway…these are the prints:

Vaporjet Print

Solar Plate Print

I intend to use Somerset Satin paper, which is artist mould paper made using 100% cotton by St Cuthberts Mill, in the southwest of England. This mill has been making paper since the 1700′s and specialises in making high quality artist papers that are mould made using a traditional cylinder mould machine (from 1907). This gives the sheet of paper excellent surface stability and superior strength. The sheets are buffered with calcium carbonate to help defend the finished piece of work from discolouration caused by the acids present in pollution.

Tutorial I

This first tutorial of the year was a good time to catch up with my project and remember where it’s going.  I am trying to seek light boxes to buy or rent. Andy suggested that if this became too difficult I could use plasma screens. The only downside about such screens is that I would really like a square shape that shows the medium format size. Of course, there are ways around it but for now I’m still going to pursue the light boxes.

I am still to re-take my investigation of the solar plates. The next step is to make a positive of the image with a stochastick (random) half tone and to use an aquatint screen with the proper density when exposing the plate.

I am also thinking of following a different avenue, maybe getting permission to go to LCF and use their Lambda printing equipment. I would think that setting up this equipment and printing with it is quite complex but then I could print from the computer into archival fiber coated paper. Lambda refers to a process that uses continuous tone digital technology. Lambda photo images are produced by transferring images directly from computer-generated digital files to reflective or backlit photographic materials without the need of a negative. Within the equipment, three lasers – one each for red, green and blue – are merged into a single beam that simultaneously exposes the photographic material, producing the image in a single pass. The photo material is then processed in the same manner as traditional photography by developing the photographic material in a “wet” film processor.  So the image can be printed onto photographic paper or backlit transparency film (duratrans), in colour or black and white. By using the lasers, the total image is crisp and precise from edge to edge with no distortion. All of this means that the quality of a Lambda panel or mural will be much better in terms of clarity, sharpness and in colour saturation. For the production of my backlit prints I have found some labs:

http://www.mckenzieclark.co.uk

http://www.michaeldyer.co.uk

http://www.genesis-digital.net

http://www.spectrumphoto.co.uk

http://www.grieger-online.de

We also talked about the future of my project and Andy suggested that I approach institutions such as the Science Museum and see if they could fund my project.

He also suggested that I should keep researching for current practitioners that are in my field. I have found a photographer that is in line with Polidory, his name is Andrew Moore. He recently photographed Detroit, a city where functional architecture is in deterioration and decay due to the car industry’s abandonment of the city. Moore tends to work in series, his previous bodies of work documenting Governor’s Island, Havana, Sarajevo and Russia. He uses long exposure photography which gives his work a great tonality that resembles pictorial rendition. In his pictures of Detroit, Moore managed to capture objects that, within their quickly disintegrating environment, have taken on the look of unearthed artifacts from a better time.

Andrew Moore -Marine Terminal, Detroit, Michigan 2009

Andrew Moore -Rouge, Detroit, Michigan 2009

Tutorial report form here

Photo Intaglio – Print Making

After looking at the Bechers and Polidori and their approach to documenting. I am considering making a typography print with my photographs. The typography will consist of a series of different valves in machinery from the 19th century arranged in a grid shape. The images will be digital and will go through the process of HDR (merging 3 exposures with Photomatix) and then synthesis (combining 2 exposures in Photoshop).

This is an example of the Becher’s typology:

Once the images are ready, I will digitally produce and print a positive – film positive paper -  in order to use it in the process of Photo Intaglio.

Photo intaglio goes back to the origins of photography. In the 1820′s, Niepce invented a photomechanical process using sensitized pewter plate. He called the images produced from these plates heliographs. Daguerre and Fox Talbot made their own contributions a few years later, and photogravure (a form of photo intaglio) became a commercial process for reproduction in the late nineteenth century. Emerson, Stieglitz and many others made editions of their work using this process. Nowadays photogravure has been replaced by more modern processes as the chemicals used were very toxic. The form of Photo Intaglio I am going to research will be Photo-etching with two different methods: Aquatint for zinc vaporjet plates and Solar plates which have a light sensitive polymer on a steel backing that is developed and etched with water.

The aim of this process is to take the image of a referent from the time of the industrial revolution trough the sophisticated procedures of digital photo imaging and bring it to the traditional and laboured process of manual print making.

Zinc Vaporjet Plates

The process I followed:

1. Exposure:

1. Film Positive face up on the glass
2. Plate face down- make sure not to touch the surface
3. Vacuum lid on, clamp it and turn on
4. Expose to UV light for 30 light units
5. Remove and develop – MX developer – for about 30 seconds
6. Dry and expose again (without the film positive) for another 30 light units in order to fix the image

2. De-scum on the sink by pouring the liquid over the plate and rubbing with cotton

3. Edging : 1:20 Nitric Acid for zinc fine line. The chemical bites the plate and it needed to  be rubbed with cotton again.

4. Dry

5. Aquatint:

1. Insert the plate in the machine with the resin dust from 5 to 8 minutes
2. Melt the resin to form a fine and even coat, making sure not too heat the plate too much and that the flames don’t go over the edge of the plate
3. Dip the plate back into the Nitric Acid and rub with cotton for about 2 minutes
4. Take it out and use methylated spirit to get the acid off
5. Dry

6. Bevel the edges of the plate with a metal file – about 2mm bevel

7. Inking:

1. Clean the inking area with methylated spirit
2. Get ink – 55985 has a high contrast hard edge black, 71303 is a warm black, F66 is  a soft black. Spread the ink thin on the table with a roller
3. Ink the plate
4. Blotch with newsprint and when the layer of ink is thinner rub with tissue paper

8. Printing:

1. Sommerset paper has a printing side, it is the one where you can read the watermark. For wet printing soak printing side down for 10 minutes. Always keep the paper in the same position to remember what side is the printing one.
2. Take out and take water excess off by putting in between the cards and pressing with rubber roller.
3. On the print press put some tissue paper down or acrylic sheet with marks. Lay the inked vaporjet plate on it and put the printing paper on top. Cover with tissue paper and blankets and feed through the press.
4. Dry print by putting it between tissue paper and insert in blotting paper.
5. Clean plate with methylated spirit

Solar Plates – Toyobo Polymer Print Plates

Process I followed so far:

1. Exposure:

1. Film Positive face up on the glass
2. Plate face down- make sure not to touch the surface
3. Vacuum lid on, clamp it and turn on
4. Expose to UV light for 30 light units
5. Remove and wash in warm water, sponge rub at the same time and change the water as it gets dirty
6. Dry

This has been my first attempt to work with this techniques. The vaporjet plate was a nice process  but the result was a little dotty plus I had some problem with the plate getting more ink than it should and printing black blobs all over. The solar plate might give me a smoother result. Also, the film positive I used (45lpi-round-27.5∘) hasn’t given me the result I expected on the aquatint process. I have been recommended to have a positive with a higher number of lpi (lines per inch) and instead of round pattern have an stochastic pattern (=random pattern). I have yet to print the solar plate although I have certain reservations about the result as quite a few parts of the plate have no texture. I have read that the plate should be exposed for a second time to UV light with an aquatint screen to retain the grain…that step was excluded. I don’t really know the right answers yet but once I print this second plate I will asses the result and seek advice from the technicians to see what is my next step.