Comments

• Peter Norman February 6, 2018 9:59

  Hi Pamela,
  We spoke some months ago regarding my Autochrome Project. I was hoping to do some visual research of some Autochromes at the V&A now that the RPS collection is there. I was wondering if you might be able to advise of any particular photographers work that you think may be worth looking at. As I don’t have a particular subject matter in mind I have only been able to submit a very general enquiry to the V&A.
  
  Kind regards,
  
  Peter Norman
• Peter Norman August 16, 2017 10:38

  Really, can you remember how successful their Autochrome prototype was? There are some images in the book of a colour checker but these look a bit dark. My approach is slightly different as I am creating a mosaic that can be compressed prior to adhering it to glass and that I use tapioca instead of potato starch. Also I am using hand coated emulsions. By their own admission they seemed to have got stuck during the emulsion stage, perhaps the project was time sensitive? I hope that in the future to have something worthy of publishing. It has been a very challenging project so far and the easiest way to approach it has been to break it down into stages that look at how you can take an industrial process and reinterpret it into a domestic one.

  Regards,

  Peter 
• Peter Norman August 16, 2017 9:55

  Hi Pamela,
  
  Thank you very much for the information. I have previously been in contact with Bertrand Lavedrine with questions about parts of the process. The book is fairly comprehensive in regards to each stage of it. However when I start to work on the spectral sensitisation of the emulsion, I think I will need further information about this area. Whilst they partly recreated the process, they used modern films in conjunction with the mosaic screen. So maybe the RPS would be a good place to start? It's very interesting to know that they utilised the archive. Do you work at the RPS?
  
  Regards,
  
  Peter