Category: artgame

kwik-print was

Posted on Posted in alt photo, art school, artgame, the Lab, visual mindTagged , , 1 Comment

Kwik-Print is another process you can’t do — the materials are not available. Unlike dye-imbibition, there aren’t enough records to devise the same product. The general procedures can certainly be re-issued. It was a simplified gum-pigment process, even though it was not gum arabic based. KP was an assembly process used by commercial printers as a proofing system. As such it found ready home for use within schools teaching any of the assembly processes.

NB: if you would like me to post a page2 with directions, push the like. With enough interest shown, it will happen

It was part of the Peak Know-How of 1978. Kwi-Print providing early access to color making for those who can’t draw and otherwise avoid painting. Kwik-Print was an assembly process; in that regard it was similar to dye-transfer, as were several hundred color making processes in the earliest years of photography-mechanical processes. Reviewers likened it to the Fresson Quadirchromie process — not so, since Kwik-Print wasn’t based upon pigments — likely they were inksets. No patent was ever filed for the process in any of its trademarked forms; neither by Direct Reproductions, nor Light Impressions.

The process was not patented. The product trademarks were the only protection for Direct Reproduction Corps. small business.


kwik proof by Samuel Sacks 1941

A telltale aspect of the kwi-Print was the synthetic “paper” support used. It was easier than similar processes such as gum-arabic, since the emulsion came ready to use; no grinding, no mixing. Synthetic wipes were used to apply coating to the synthetic paper which dried quickly without shrinkage. A multicolor print could be completed in minutes rather than hours as with gum prints.

Contrast of sheets: the receiver sheets affected contrast of the image; they were offered in three distinct grades of contrast. These sheets had code-notches to mark them, however, since the contrast change was due to the surface sheen/ diffusion (see callier) examining the sheet by raked light told which was high or low contrast — how shiny did it seem; how smooth did it feel.

So, why read about it? Sometimes the past reveals a future. Procedures change, shift, die — theory never dies, it transforms.

a short time on photography’s craft stage. it was part of the alternative life phase of Rochester’s boom years. Taking part in the silver-rush seventies by adding color without Kodak and friends.

How processes take hold; what it took for Kwik-Print.

  • It must be simple enough to learn within a short time such as a workshop
  • It is stronger if introduced in a time of growth among the arts community — the 70s was the explosion of photography into art schools.
  • It needs an advocate able to say, do and show what and how the process fits into that time
  • It helps if there is a strong commercial need of the process. Kwik-Proof was re-badged from the commercial printing trade where it was used for several decades. At the time of its conversion to the fine-art, solo studio practitioner, it was falling from use.

Before Post-Factory was alt=photography. Before that was non-silver imaging.

Bea Nettles was the proponent of the Kwik-Print stage of pigment printing. It was sold as kit and as individual items. Kwik-Print was a modification of the Kwik-Proof graphic arts product originated and sold by Direct Reproductions Corporation, Brooklyn,N.Y. The colorants used were not designed for permanence under display conditions. Keep em covered.

Light Impressions, 131 Gould Street, Rochester, NY was the large scale supplier to the fine-art photographers, ie, those educated in the art schools that seemed endless during the growth of gallery photography.

Some of the who:

bea nettles (b.1946 -) — a key advocate. She brought the Direct Reproduction Corporation product to the handmade emulsion community via Light Impressions.

watercote: The American Photo Engraver, Volume 49, 1957

the graphic trademarks for Direct Reproduction Corporation.

The trademarks for Kwik-Proof, along with the unfinished application for Kwik-Print.

Knowing where to look comes before finding.

Interested about the past? A common first thought is ask the web. As part of a continuing task of checking cultural progress, I asked 4 published bots. My request and the response follow:

AI thinks “emulsion” means silk-screen. Becoming over-confident about its comprehension of “light impressions.” the best answer among the current crust of AI engines. [12,25] Yet another false start. Confident, but wrong. Not even close to accurate.

The internet past is restricted to the 21st century. The printed page was not digitized. Try asking a librarian for the information. Librarians at large research libraries have extensive resources.

My first searches are to my bookshelves, then to online known reference sites.

Never ask a passing bot; never ask a hobby spot, even if this is “just” a hobby.

If You Knew Dye Transfer

Posted on Posted in art biz, artgame, da net, dye transfer, visual mindTagged , , , , ,

How many times must a process die before you learn why? The insistence is common, consistent, durable — it lasts longer than the process itself. People of the Net hold the belief that dye transfer would be resurected, successfully, if peopls could see how fantastic it was, particularly in this age of terrible stuff.

You have to see it to believe it… You have to believe it to see it. Is that true in the case of dye transfers?

The role played by product names in art appreciation is high at the sales table, and among the foremost forums. 

“Not to find one's way around a city does not mean much. But to lose one's way in a city, as one loses one's way in a forest, requires some schooling. Street names must speak to the urban wanderer like the snapping of dry twigs, and little streets in the heart of the city must reflect the times of day, for him, as clearly as a mountain valley. This art I acquired rather late in life; it fulfilled a dream, of which the first traces were labyrinths on the blotting papers in my school notebooks.”
— Walter Benjamin

… understand the magic …

Dyes were seen and made by hundreds in the era of Photograph as Object suited to gallery and museum. The growth years of photography in art schools — 1975 – 1995.

Even still, it failed, being superseded by other processes. Direct to print processes such as Type Rs (Cibas, too) for Slide to print. And, Type Cs (chromogenics, RA-4s)for Negative to print. This later printing mode strikes hardest, since Kodak Pan Matrix film was introduced with Kodak masked color negative film

the advantage of real world experience is that is is real.
i read history in the bathroom; philosophy in the bedroom; poetry in the kitchen

If you knew it was a dye transfer would it interest you more? One group of people have made dye imbibition prints over the past decade. Have shown them in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Brooklyn, London … never calling them Dye Transfers, instead, they were dye prints, or ink transfers, and similar names. Some prints were sold, but so too were Epson Inkjets, Fujifilm RA-4s. Without making these as dyes, they sold as images. This was the basic interest of the collective group that had gone to the trouble of learning to make dyes. By make, understand that this meant having matrix film produced again.

Why did they keep this a secret private among themselves?

what would you rather talk about: process or *c, where *c is being defined, refined. Who asks, who would you be limited to talking too, with, if the topic were “process”.

Most people diffuse their interest by a bit of gossip. That mannerism is what diminishes a process to the point of pointless conversation.

Would people dive into dye transfer if given the chance? Nope, one [J* 826 ] of the Neu Ds posted on LFPF, offering a complete working dye transfer lab, including supplies… even going so far as saying she would meet them at an upcoming conference. No one, not even the loudest of counter pounder experts on dye transfer, and all topics color.

2011: 3 students
   ‘12 : +3
   ‘15 : +8