I truly enjoy this traditional, historical, and alternative method that is often overlooked in today's digital environment.  This process reveals the artists' hands and encompasses the passion behind creating photographs that fulfill their innermost thoughts, dreams, and desires.  Gum prints could be called "photographically controlled watercolors". Even though the image may resemble a color photograph, it is only a fabrication of layers of pigment and hardened gm Arabic. It is in some ways closer to painting than photography.

TriColor Gum Workshop Description:

The 19th century photographic process - TriColor Gum Bichromate printing allows the artist to expose multiple layers of cyan, yellow, magenta and black to create an archival hand-made full-color photograph on 100% cotton watercolor paper.  Print-makers that embark in this alternative process consider themselves artists, "pictorialists," working as they do in complex intricacies and harnessing the delicate interactions between colors.  The process requires meticulous attention to detail and an intimate understanding of the materials, resulting in depth and subtlety that is almost painterly.

Over the course of three days in Los Angeles, participants will join me on a creative journey to master the gum bichromate process.  You are invited into my studio and working darkroom, where you have the unique opportunity to learn from my experience, benefit from hands-on demonstration and guidance, and receive feedback in real-time.

I will guide you through my refined workflow from start to finish. You witness and practice each step of the process in sequence: a UV light sensitive emulsion is created combining gum Arabic, ammonium dichromate and watercolor pigments. The emulsion is coated onto cotton paper and exposed under a digital negative to UV light, allowing the image to come to life.

Each step allows for discussion and analysis. We begin by identifying the different properties of the chemistry, and learn how each pigment color differs from the others.  From there, we discuss paper choice, and practice paper coating and brushing techniques. I will provide you with the CMYK digital negatives printed from the images that you provide me in advance. The digital negatives are used for the CMYK separations, and we will view our digital negatives on the lightbox. This is a contact printing process, so your image is as big as the negative being used. Finally, we move on to registration, the development process, and creating multiple layers of emulsion to produce a full-color image.

This workshop is designed for photographers seeking a hands-on experience that combines analog mastery with digital tools, technical refinement with creative play and appreciation of both art history and contemporary advancements.

ADDITIONAL WORKSHOP INFORMATION

Who Should Attend: Amateurs, Advanced Amateurs

What You Should Know: Basic knowledge of photography

Activity Level: Due to the nature of this unique program, participants can expect long days in the studio

Cost:
Private Workshop for 1 to 2 people:  $975.00
Duration of Workshop:  2 Days

Group size of 3 to 6 people:  $875.00
Duration of Workshop:  3 Days

Please contact us for more information about TriColor Gum workshops.
Email tennismohan@aol.com or call (310) 944-2625.