Color Carbro Printing by Gerard Anière

[holmburgers]

This printer was brought to my attention by Charles Berger. Attached (in 2 jpegs) is an article about Gerard Anière from the World Journal of Post-Factory Photography, 2004.

Mssr. Anière has developed a home-grown method to produce modern color-carbro prints.

In case the details of carbro are fuzzy, allow me to defuzz briefly. The process uses tissues that are identical (generally speaking) to carbon tissues, but the method of "exposure" is different. Instead of sensitizing in dichromates and exposing to UV light under a negative, a carbon tissue and a black & white bromide print (hence car-bro) are squeegeed into intimate contact in a solution of potassium dichromate, potassium ferricyanide, potassium bromide & chromic acid. This is a carbro bleach. This solution bleaches the bromide print and its byproducts migrate to and tan the gelatin of the pigment tissue. E. Howard Farmer discovered this property, and his name lends itself to what we know as Farmer's Reducer. The exposed carbro tissue is transfered and developed just like a carbon print.

The most cited obstacle to carbro is the unsuitable nature of most modern day b&w papers and their gelatin supercoat. To overcome this Gerard is using a home-made silver emulsion that appears to have been inspired by Jim Browning's dye-transfer emulsion. He coats this onto large sheets of clear polyester and these become his "bromides". Apparently his digital negatives are created by Tod Gangler in Seattle; Art & Soul. The beauty of carbro is that you don't need enlarged negatives, and this allows him to make very large carbro prints.

Anyways, there's much more in the article and a big thanks to Charles for sending me a picture of Gerard in action!

[holmburgers]

p.s. Once you open the article JPEGS, click on them again and it will open them in their own window/tab. Then you might have to click one more time to zoom them to full size, but trust me that they are large enough to read, and even print out if you'd prefer. Let me know if you have trouble viewing them.

[holmburgers]

Here are some of his prints -> http://www.michaelhoppengallery.com/...or_april_.html

[Tom Kershaw]

I really ought to follow up on some of the research you've been doing recently as I'd like to make colour carbon / carbro prints in the future.

Tom

[holmburgers]

I encourage you to Tom and I'd be happy to help in any way that I can.

[Tom Kershaw]

Thanks. It seems as though there is a fair amount of information on the 'Alternative Processes' forum on APUG.

Tom

[holmburgers]

Absolutely, and everything I've learned has come from books, online sources and only a few nuggets have been "private wisdom" from individuals. So everything is out there, but if you have trouble finding something let me know.

[Tom Kershaw]

Do you know if anyone has ever put together a relatively complete modern guide on the colour carbon & carbro processes?

Tom

[holmburgers]

Well modern might be a stretch, but Luis Nadeau has several books from the 80's that are quite comprehensive. Particularly the 'History of Carbon Proceses' (IIRC) discusses carbro, carbon and color. It's considered 'the bible' by many and it's still completely relevant.

There are several other books that have good reputations, but as far as digital negatives and that kind of thing, no one has covered anything that modern.

So that being said, it's a case of taking from many sources what you need to know and creating your own workflow. Everything has been covered, but not in one place.

[Bob Carnie]

Chris
I for one would be interested in a step by step guideline as you see it on colour Carbon, I have been following this thread with interest and also been privately talking about making film with others.
But you seem to be holding on to this like a dog with a bone and would love to see how you would approach making a colour carbon print , in a perfect setting.
What would you need, where do you see the pitfalls , what is easy and so forth.
FYI I am proceeding with duotone , tri tone and tritone with a black using film I have made myself on the Lambda and when I have made a few prints that I like I will post them.. At this point I am not aiming for full realistic colour like Todd G and John B but rather a less realistic version.
Bob

Well modern might be a stretch, but Luis Nadeau has several books from the 80's that are quite comprehensive. Particularly the 'History of Carbon Proceses' (IIRC) discusses carbro, carbon and color. It's considered 'the bible' by many and it's still completely relevant.

There are several other books that have good reputations, but as far as digital negatives and that kind of thing, no one has covered anything that modern.

So that being said, it's a case of taking from many sources what you need to know and creating your own workflow. Everything has been covered, but not in one place.