Ron Talis' gallery^pro

The image is dried down. Did I already say to look at the colour?

Drying on a frame made of wood and nylon mosquito net.

One of the most spectacular in this already spectacular set. Once again notice the dramatic colour change. 2 times 2mn in fresh hypo 20%.

Just before the last clearing. Notice the change in colour. The border between too few clearing that can impair conservation and too much where bleaching begins, is a very thin line.

I clear for 6mn in tap water with two tea spoons citric acid. Changing the water five times after 30s,30s,1mn,1mn and 2mn. This is a key point for future conservation. Notice how the yellow stain clears already after 20s.

After 4mn exposure, I open half of the back to verify the printing state. Then I give 2mn more exposure, and so on until I´m satisfied. The other half of the frame stays locked and the registration doesn´t get lost.

A second-hand sunlamp, 30 Euros.

Don´t press too much, hear what the paper is saying, the last stroke is a caress. Remove the last line with a tissue. Allow to dry in a dark place for an hour.

To coat a 4x5" I use the rod method, best described by Mike Ware. I previously drew 4 points on the paper to delimit the area to be coated. I found that with a straw I can take the right amount of emulsion without any loss.

These are the simple tools I use to coat my paper. Some used tape, to tape the paper onto the glass plate and untape without any damage. A glass rod. A straw. The emulsion bottle. This is argyrotype from Fotospeed in the UK and is very well suited to begi…

I cut the paper to the frame dimension. Alternatively I use also a smaller format, like a postcard. I have prepared a set of cache to delimit clear borders around the image.

This is the contact-printing frame that I´m using. Old thing from the 19th when they were quite common. I had an imperfections free thick sheet of plate glass cut at the right dimensions (21x27cm). The frame has two strong clips at the back to press the…