Kallitype, Vandyke Brown, and Argyrotype: A Step-By-Step Manual of Iron-Silver Processes Highlighting Contemporary Artists

Focusing on three iron-silver processes--kallitype, Vandyke Brown, and argyrotype--this book will guide readers through how to create prints using these accessible and historic processes in the digital age.

Often termed the Brownprint processes, author Donald W. Nelson provides step-by-step detail on how to create prints using kallitype, Vandyke brown, and argyrotype methods, including information on the materials needed, troubleshooting issues, and examples from contemporary artists. The book consists of two parts. Part I is a step-by-step how-to section including all the information that a practitioner at any level needs to achieve successful kallitype, Vandyke brown, and argyrotype prints. Part II is devoted to contemporary artists who have integrated the process into their creative practice.

The book includes the following:

• A list of equipment and supplies needed
• Concise step-by-step instructions for creating kallitype, Vandyke brown, and argyrotype prints successfully
• Troubleshooting common issues
• A range of creative ideas on how to use the processes in the classroom
• Examples from over 20 contemporary artists, including their prints and how they came to make them

Ideal for students and professionals alike, this book is an accessible introduction to alternative process photography.

Don Nelson’s work focuses on the historic landscape in contemporary times, most often buildings disused or repurposed. Nelson has been a practitioner of alternative processes since 1983 using Carbon Transfer, Platinum/Palladium, Kallitype, Van Dyke Brown, Argyrotype, Salt, and the now discontinued printing-out paper. Nelson began with large format cameras (12˝ x 20˝ and 7˝ x 17˝) but added digital negatives after a Dick Arentz/Mark Nelson Formulary workshop in the 1990s. Don continues to use both in-camera and digitally captured images in his work. He has shown work regionally. He is a co-author of Carbon Transfer Printing (Routledge, 2019) and authored a chapter on Kallitype in Digital Negatives with QuadtoneRIP (Routledge, 2021). Nelson teaches carbon transfer classes at the Formulary/Workshops in Montana.