Calotype. The word is from the Greek words Kalos, “beautiful,” and tupos, “impression”. It’s the first photographic process invented and patented in 1841. Calotypes are paper negatives. The original process was invented by a British man called Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877). It was the first negative-positive photographic process (meaning you could make positive photographic prints from the negative). It was the invention of photography.
Talbot began making his photographic prints on paper in 1834 at Laycock Abbey, England - in his ancestral mansion. Talbot wasn’t very well-liked in a lot of circles. He was protective of his process and charged a substantial amount of money to use it (license). If you tried to use his process without the proper credentials, he would sue you.
While I don’t use Talbot’s recipes or methodologies, what I do is very similar and would still be called a Calotype or Calotypy. I use a process invented by Alexander Greenlaw (1818-1870). The earliest account of Greenlaw's process was published in Photographic News in January 1869, also in the 8th edition of John Towler's book the Silver Sunbeam in 1873 which seems to use Greenlaw's own words. There is also an account in the 7th edition of Abney’s Instructions in photography dated 1886. This is very late for a process that peaked in the mid-1850s. Indeed it was still being cited in the early 1900s. Here we are in the 21st century and it is still viable.
The paper negative is a beautiful thing in and of itself. I started making them over a decade ago when I lived in Europe. What piqued my interest was the history of the process and that it was the original process in photography. It’s easy to connect these ideas and facts to my work today. The historical part is important because I’m working with land and people that were original. The Ute or Tabeguache people say that they were here since time immemorial. The original people. Their origin story talks about the Creator Sinawav gathering sticks and turning them into people.
Part of the story says this, “In the ancient times only Sinawav, the Creator, and Coyote lived on the earth. They had come out of the light so long ago, that no one remembered when or how. The Earth was young and the time had come to increase the people. Sinawav gave a bag of sticks to Coyote and said ‘Carry these over the far hills to the valleys beyond.’ He gave specific directions Coyote was to follow and told him what to do when he got there. ‘You must remember, this is a great responsibility. The bag must not be opened under any circumstances until you reach the sacred grounds.’”
I make a lot of photographs of trees. Trees are so vital to the indigenous people here. They have been used for food, shelter, ceremonial objects, etc. They are symbolic too. They are used as a metaphor in a lot of stories. The wood is made into paper. I make the negatives on paper. The connection here is profound to me. Working with materials that are made from the subject matter you are photographing is meaningful to me - a material-to-concept connection. And the people that lived here believe they were created from this material.
A test print from a Calotype (paper negative). I was attempting to render the tiny cross on the distant hill. The Palladiotype I printed didn’t show it, so I made a K1-Kallitype test today and it did. A warm developer with a lot of Borax gave this color. It is not toned, only cleared, fixed, and washed.
Detail of the above print. Forgive the iPhone photos.
A new Calotype I made today. I called it, “After the Rain, a Waterhole in Granite”. I’ll make a print of it soon. I like the abstract-ness of it and the shapes. The old Ponderosa Pine on the granite feels like it had something to do with the (almost) perfectly round watering hole - and yes, it’s filled with water. How did it form like this?
Inverted negative in Photoshop. Will look really good as a K-1 Kallitype or Palladiotype.