Mike Ware (photographer)
Encyclopedia
Mike Ware is a chemist and photographer, known for his work in alternative photographic process
es, earlier methods of printing photographic images that were succeeded by the more common silver-gelatin used today. His website includes practical instructions for the argyrotype
(prints using iron salts as the light-sensitive coating), cyanotype
, platinotype
(prints using light-sensitive solutions containing platinum), palladiotype (prints using light-sensitive solutions containing palladium), and chrysotype
(using gold to form or tone the final image) processes. The site also includes papers on various technical issues, the conservation of 'alternative process' prints, historical essays, galleries, and extensive lists of links and resources.
His published works include:
Alternative process
The term alternative process refers to any non-traditional, or non-commercial photographic printing process. Currently the standard analog photographic printing process is the gelatin-silver process, and standard digital processes include the pigment print, and digital laser exposures on...
es, earlier methods of printing photographic images that were succeeded by the more common silver-gelatin used today. His website includes practical instructions for the argyrotype
Argyrotype
Argyrotype is an iron-based silver printing process that produces brown images on plain paper. It is an alternative process derived from the Argentotype, Kallitype, and Van Dyke processes of the 19th Century, but has greater simplicity, improved image stability, and longer sensitizer shelf-life...
(prints using iron salts as the light-sensitive coating), cyanotype
Cyanotype
Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that gives a cyan-blue print. The process was popular in engineering circles well into the 20th century. The simple and low-cost process enabled them to produce large-scale copies of their work, referred to as blueprints...
, platinotype
Platinotype
Platinum prints, also called platinotypes, are photographic prints made by a monochrome printing process that provides the greatest tonal range of any printing method using chemical development....
(prints using light-sensitive solutions containing platinum), palladiotype (prints using light-sensitive solutions containing palladium), and chrysotype
Chrysotype
Chrysotype is a photographic process invented by John Herschel in 1842. Named from the Greek for "gold", it uses colloidal gold to record images on paper....
(using gold to form or tone the final image) processes. The site also includes papers on various technical issues, the conservation of 'alternative process' prints, historical essays, galleries, and extensive lists of links and resources.
His published works include:
- Cyanotype: The History, Science and Art of Photographic Printing in Prussian Blue
- Mechanisms of Image Deterioration in Early Photographs: The Sensitivity to Light of W H F Talbot\'s Halide-fixed Images