April 2009 Newsletter
Published 30 Apr 13:21
Welcome to my April newsletter.
- Product news (especially lith materials)
- The bad news
- The good news
- The hopeful news
- Other news
- Photographer's Formulary annual Alt Print competition
- Workshops
- The Colourful World of Black & White exhibition
- Join me on Facebook
Product news
Lithable papers
Keeping abreast of developments is like trying to hit a moving target so if you have my Lith Printing Materials Update booklet (Nov 2008 - downloadable from my website on subscribing to this mailing list) you might want to update it now.
I have been holding back this newsletter for some time as I have been hoping to have good news for you about new lithable materials but project dates get delayed and currently are not predictable.
Sadly I do have news but not much of it is good. However, I do know that R&D is continuing on several products and hope that this might bring better news in due course.
The bad news:
Harman Technology (Ilford Photo) have issued a press release stating 'three KENTMERE products are to be withdrawn because they have proven themselves impossible to produce in a way that's either acceptable or economically viable. Contributing factors to this regrettable situation include global supply issues, changing legislation and an increasingly difficult trading climate.'
These products are
- Kentmere Kentona - a sad loss of a lovely WT paper also useful for lith printing. If you like this paper buy it while stocks last.
- Kentmere Art collection - this was actually discontinued prior to Kentmere's acquisition by Ilford because the manufacturer of that paper base ceased production. I know that Kentmere and Ilford have both sought a good replacement and I have tested several prototypes but it was a difficult product to reproduce and all had technical problems.
- Kentmere Centennial Printing Out Paper (POP)
Kentmere Finegrain semi-matte VC FB paper base was also discontinued so the Fineprint VC FB and Fineprint Warmtone VC FB will be changing too. I don't know how this will affect the new papers lith print abilities.
Freestyle Arista II
This was made by Kentmere and has been discontinued. Stock is selling out. Buy now if you like this paper.
Fotospeed lith paper
Kentmere also produced emulsion for this paper and inevitably production ceased a while ago and now stocks are running very low. Buy and freeze if you find any but some of the later batches had markedly different characteristics.
However, see below under 'Hopeful'.
The good news:
Foma show no signs of reducing their range of excellent papers, which lith well. On the contrary, in addition to the recently introduced foma 123, with a surface similar to Agfa MCC they are shortly bringing out Fomatome 133, the Fomatone warm tone emulsion with the MCC-like surface. Freestyle should have this in stock in the next month or so.
The hopeful news:
Ilford Photo new papers project
Ilford are working on new paper emulsions and are hoping to produce a variable Contrast Warmtone successor to Kentona for the Kentmere label. I understand that this will be a new emulsion, not a rebadge. Their production technology is different to that used by the older Kentmere factory before it closed and it may be unlikely that these papers will lith well, but they are likely to be very good of course and may well respond to 'Second Pass' lith (bleach & lith redevelopment), so the news has to be very welcome. Watch this space or my Facebook page (see below).
The Adox MCC project is still underway and tests of its Agfa resurrection paper have been well received and it liths fairly well, though not aggressively.
I understand the range of paper sizes is to be increased.
Return of Polywarmtone?
Adox are also considering the possibility of resurrecting Forte's hugely popular PWT emulsion.
This great paper was a major favourite for both regular and Lith printing and it would be very welcome news if it comes about.
Read more about it here: http://www.polywarmton.com
Fotospeed Lith paper successor?
Not to raise false hopes here but Fotospeed have been searching for a lithable paper to succeed its current one, which has been discontinued and is selling out.
They have a prospective candidate for this and I shall be testing it shortly to see if it has potential. Watch this space, or my Facebook page (see below)
Lith developers
Those of you who use Freestyle's own label Lith developers need to know about changes here too.
Arista Lith (liquid) has been discontinued and replaced with Arista Premium Liquid Lith A & B. This is made by another manufacturer and tests are reported to be very good at (1+24) + (1+24). It works faster than the previous version.
Arista powder lith developer is a different product and formulation and remains unchanged.
Other news:
New 35mm film from Kentmere
Kentmere have released 2 new traditional grain films in ISO 125 & 400. They will also be available in 30m lengths.
These are new emulsions and will be 'competitively priced'.
Hahnemuhle Gallerie Wrap
Fotospeed have sent me this video clip of a new wrap around framing system that they have launched. Take a look here
Photographer's Formulary annual Alt Print competition
I am delighted to learn that for the second year in its 2 year history two of the three prizes in the Photographer's Formulary Alt Print competition have been awarded to students from my workshops!
This year they bagged first and third places!
Congratulations to Sandy Kawano and Nanette Hegamin. You can see their winning images by clicking here.
Workshops
The Photographer's Formulary are now taking bookings for this year's Lith printing workshops in Montana. Once again I am running a 'Lith Printing and Toning from Scratch' week, for which no lith experience is required (but is also no bar), and a 'Lith Printing, Continued Personal Development' week for previous students only. The two courses are quite different and you can take one and progress onto the next if you wish to. Details can be found on the formulary website (workshops>schedule) and on my website.
Last year the alumni week was overbooked so we ran a third week. I am unable to do that this year, so book early!
This is also a great area for a 2-centre holiday, with Glacier National Park a couple of hours away and Yellowstone just a day away, so why not take a week's holiday photographing and come to The Formulary to print?
The Colourful World of Black & White exhibition
For those of you in the UK, a reminder for my upcoming exhibition at The Lightbox in Woking. See their website here It will be a 'recent retrospective' from a few bodies of work with about 65 - 70 works on show and a small book of the show.
There will be an Opening Reception on Wednesday evening May 20th. If you would like to come please contact me via my website here
There will be an artist's lecture on May 21st.
It would be great to see some of you there.
My Facebook link
Finally, I have recently registered with Facebook. I have no intention of making daily bulletins on trivia but hope it might be a useful way of communicating irregular ad hoc bits of information.
if you would like to make use of this and register as my 'Facebook friend' please do so using the link below. It's very easy to do (even I did it!)
Finally finally, if you think these bulletins might be useful to anyone you know please direct them to my website www.timrudman.com. Subscription to the mailing list is free.
Best wishes,