A Page About My Pinhole Photography

This page will show some photographs printed with alternative processes.. The negatives were are made with the pinhole camera are 4” x 5″. I have used several of these processes over the years. I am working on assembling a working space because I do plan to revisit Cyanotype soon.

I will briefly cover three printing processes here: Cyanotype, Van Dyke Brown, and Kallitype. Van Dyke and Kallitype are silver processes. Cyanotype uses ferric (iron) salts to create a photosensitive solution.

Cyanotype

A typical Cyanotype procedure uses iron salts rather than silver salts. The solutions are 10% potassium ferricyanide and 20% ferric ammonium citrate dissolved in equal volumes of water. This creates two solutions which must be mixed in equal parts to create the light sensitive solution. This solution is then applied to paper or other materials and dried. Then the sensitized paper and negative are placed together in a contact printing frame. They are then exposed to Ultra Violet light. The light source can be either the sun or a strong electrical UV light.

Hutschi, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons – Source: Wikipedia

Here is an historical self portrait image made by a camera in 1895, printed in Cyanotype. – Wikipedia

I am now working with cyanotype printing using my 4×5″ pinhole camera negatives. I just started this process in January of this year. I am using the sun for exposure of the print as the light sensitive material needs strong Ultraviolet light. The process is finicky and time consuming, but I find the work enjoyable.

Here is a recent cyanotype of mine.

Van Dyke Brown

The Van Dye Brown print results in a deep brown color. It is an alternative silver process. The black and white, and color photographs you have seen are also processes using silver halides. But, they are manufactured papers containing these silver salts underneath a gelatin coating. These prints are called Gelatin Silver prints.

The Van Dyke Brown prints also use silver salts to make an image. The Van Dyke brown process was patented in Germany in 1895 by Arndt and Troost.

The chemicals used to make a Van Dyke Brown print are ferric ammonium citrate, tartaric acid, and silver nitrate. These three chemicals are mixed and put in three separate bottles. When it is time to print the three solutions are mixed and then the paper is hand coated. Once the paper is dry it is exposed to Ultra Violet light. The result is a deep brown which resembles the pigment Van Dyke Brown.

The pictures below are examples of my Van Dyke prints

Kallitype

Kallitype is a silver process which produces beautiful black and white images. In the Kallitype process, 100% cotton rag paper is coated with a mixture of ferric oxalate and silver nitrate. Then, it is exposed in the sun.