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Актуально:
HOW TO PRINT ON 100-YEAR OLD PAPER
The Azo and Amidol Story
Michael A. Smith
Introduction:
Today, almost no one prints on Azo, the last of the silver chloride contact printing papers, and the finest paper on which to print black and white negatives. Most of those using large-format negatives and making contact prints are printing on enlarging paper, or, dissatisfied with their silver prints, are making platinum prints. When asked if they have had any experience with Azo, most photographers answer that they can’t get good prints with it or that it is not being made any more. Surprise—although most camera stores do not stock it, Azo is still being manufactured. Azo is the longest continuously manufactured photographic paper ever made. It was first introduced by Photo Materials Company in Rochester back in 1898. In July of that year Kodak bought out Photo Materials, and has been producing Azo ever since. This article will describe this unique paper and explain how you can make beautiful prints with it.
My own early experiences with Azo:
In 1966, when I first began to make photographs using a 35mm camera, the camera store I dealt with told me that if I was going to make contact sheets as well as enlargements I would need contact printing paper. They sold me a 100-sheet box of Azo.
The quality of those first contact sheets was far better than my enlargements—the blacks were richer and there was a glow to those small prints that I just couldn’t get in the enlargements. At that time, and for many years after, I assumed the inferior quality of the enlargements was due to the enlarging process. It was not until later—after I had spent eight years making contact prints on chloro-bromide or bromide enlarging papers and still could not achieve the quality of those Azo contact sheets—that I came to realize that the problem was due to the enlarging paper itself.
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I strongly recommend that anyone making contact prints give Azo a try. Not only will your prints be richer and more glowing, but you will find the printing process to be significantly faster and easier; you will be more pleased with your prints and you will have more time to make new negatives.
© Michael A. Smith 1996
http://www.michaelandpaula.com/mp/azoamidol.html
Статьи:
A Photographic Odyssey
Article about Michael and Paula from Black and White Magazine in the January/February 2004 issue.
Letter to a Young Photographer
by Michael A. Smith. Originally published in Calumet Newsletter #6, 1997. Reprinted in LensWork Quarterly, Issue #24, 1999.
On Teaching Photography
by Michael A. Smith. Originally published in Exposure, the Journal of the Society for Photographic Education, February 1976.
Intentions & Techniques
by Michael A. Smith. Originally published by Lehigh University, 1987, in the catalogue for the fourth Intentions and Techniques exhibition.
How to Print on 100-Year Old Paper- The Azo and Amidol Story
by Michael A. Smith. Originally published in View Camera Magazine, July/August, 1996.
Azo Update 2000
by Michael A. Smith. 1999. This is an expanded version of the article that was orginally published in View Camera Magazine, March/ April 2000.
On Printing-And Why There is No Such Thing as a Difficult Negative to Print
by Michael A. Smith. This is an expanded version of the article that was orginally published in View Camera Magazine, May/June, 1998.
Developing by Inspection
by Michael A. Smith. Originally published in View Camera Magazine, May/June, 1999
Advances in Archival Mounting and Storage
by Michael A. Smith. Originally published in View Camera Magazine, November/Devember, 2000.
Developers, An Introduction
by Michael A. Smith
http://www.michaelandpaula.com/mp/writings_topost.html