Introduction (Originally written in Oct 2016)
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| A Photable |
My grandfather Cushman Morse (the Grandchildren knew him as Grandpa Cushy) tried to start a small business shortly after he he moved his family from Mattapoisett, Massachusetts to Phoenix Arizona around 1948. The move precipitated by my father's asthma where a drier climate was recommended. My grandparent lived the rest of their lives in Arizona.
My grandfather was an avid photographer at the time and would later start camera store in Phoenix called Cushy's Cameras. He used a large format 4x5 view camera though I am unsure of the make. The business was called Photables and were coffee tables with a large black and white print under glass. In a previous post on this blog I said...
He had a local carpenter make the tables and he took the photos, usually custom, that he then placed under a sheet of glass for the table top. He started with a 4x5 negative and printed it in his own darkroom. My father recalls he developed it using sponges as the trays would have been huge. He had one tray however for fixing which he had custom made out of stainless steel. I recall growing up and visiting my grandparents in Carefree Arizona where they retired. Central in the living room was always one of his coffee tables about 3x4 foot I would guess with an edge to edge black and white photograph of the a local Sonoran desert landscape. My grandmother adored the Sonoran desert and I learned that passionate aesthetic from her. Today I still love deserts despite living climatically as far as one could imagine here in England.
I acquired a lot of my grandfather's negatives from my father last summer. I had intended to build a large format enlarger but have not completed the project. Since the enlarger project was impeding the objective of printing and preserving his work, I decided I should look again at contact prints. Reading online it was clear there were fans of the small prints some describing them as small jewels.
I have tried my hand at bookbinding and gone so far as to make and use a sewing frame. This led me to think of this as a means to preserve my grandfather's work. To keep the project manageable I decided to buy from
Hewits and Sons a
prebound book block ready for casing in. They include glassine for protecting photos. Casing in the process of taking a text block and adding end papers and a cover to make a bound book. The classic mini is 6x8" perfect for a 4x5 contact print.
I decided to make covers from the cardboard from discarded Ilford paper boxes cut to 8 1/8" x 6 1/4". I used some red book cloth (also available from Hewits and Sons) to cover the spine an a 1" reveal on the front and back. The rest of the cover would be a print I made from one of my grandfather's photos. I couldn't decide if I should use an RC (Resin Coated paper) print or an FB (Fiber Based paper) print. FB would probably adhere better to the cover but I am concerned how it would wear over time. RC would probably be tougher. RC would also suffer less from warping. To convince myself I could glue the RC print I ran a test gluing of both RC and FB paper folded over a corner. They both seems quite robust so I opted for the RC based on my assumption of improved wear. The prints inside would all be FB however.
Cover Design
Next I had to make the cover photo and include the title. I wanted this to all be done with photographic processes. I decided to print the title text using a PC and inkjet printer though to start with.
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| Original Ink-jet Print |
This I would then invert and contact print on some ortho lith film. The film when exposed and developed creates a wonderful sharp clear text with black surround.
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| Ortho Lith Contact Print |
This I would then overlay on the photo paper (Ilford MGIV RC) and overexpose to create dark black text over the blank sky of the image. I then remove the ortho lith film and make a normal exposure on the paper, Since the text is over exposed extra exposure does not affect it. Indeed my text exposure is done with the negative loaded in the enlarger and I open up the aperture to f4 for 11 seconds whereas the print is done at f22 for 45 seconds each for #5 and #0 filter (split filter VC work). The back cover is simply another photo with no text.
Those paying attention may say wait a minute you don't have a 4x5 enlarger. This is correct. (at least I didn't when I started this project but I do now!) I instead put the 4x5 negative into my 6mm x 6mm enlarger and got a crop I liked. This I then scaled to fit the front and back cover print. The print size had to have 1" overlaps on the top, bottom, and one side. The other side is cut flush (full bleed) against the book cloth reveal from the spine. This makes the print about 8 1/4" high and 8 1/8" long. For the back cover I used the same negative but cropped a section further along the image. I planned this all using Word to create mockups.
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| Title Page Print Mockup from Word |
The book casing look like this so far in the process. The front shows the red book cloth reveal wrapped for the spine. The gray portion is the cardboard core of the cover where I will glue the photo above. The dimensions are 6 1/4" tall and 8 1/8 wide to fit the 6x8" book block.
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| The raw front cover of the casing. |
Here is the inside of the casing showing the book cloth folded over the edges of the casing. Yes I did use an old Ilford photo paper box I am either making an economical or an appropriate choice.
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| Inside of casing. |
Next I took the print I made for the back of the book cover and fitted to the back for gluing. I used a bone folder to crease the edges.
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| Back photo already creased |
The back of the photo shows the corners cut at 45 degrees.The corners of the cover are marked and the 45 degree cuts are made a millimeter or so from the corner to allow for some overlap over the thickness of the cover. Below the cover is ready for gluing. I used PVA but it is awfully fast drying. Binders paste is probably easier to work with but can't be found at the local DIY/hardware store.
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| Back photo showing glue side. |
Once the back of the photo is covered in glue it is aligned and pressed into place. One has to work quickly and accurately now. Note that since I am using the inside of the paper box it already has a paper covering (Ilford) to help reduce warping. Normally you would glue a piece of paper on the inside cover to compensate for the forces of the glued outer cover and reduce warping. I will do this on the front cover as it has no backing on the inside of the cover.
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| Fitting the back photo and gluing it |
I then clamp the whole thing and let dry over night.
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| Clamping the glued photo and cover. |
The result is here. Very pleasing.
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| Resulting back of the cover |
Inside are the overlap flaps. I glue these separately as the RC paper does not fold down well and requires extra attention. These flaps and the inside cover will be covered by the end papers when the book block is glued to the cover.
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| Inside of the cover. The flaps I glue separately. |
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| Once glued the back looks like this now. |
Now the same process for the front cover. The back of the front cover is shown with the lining paper shown. When glued this white paper will compensate for any warping forces from the glued in cover photo.
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| Back of front cover |
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| Final detail of front cover. |
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| The finished casing or cover. |
I then glued on to the book block an end paper on the front and back. It is cream colored on the backside so is not apparent in the photo below. The netting along the spine is called mull and is used to create a strong connection to the casing. The mull was part of the purchased book block.
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| Book block with end paper glues in. |
Here is the inside of the end paper where the pattern is visible. The end paper is functional as well as decorative as it helps attach the book block to the casing as the left side leaf will be glued to the cover.
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| Inside of the end paper. This is the pattern I chose |
Finally the block is glued to the casing as below. I glue one end at a time by gluing the end paper and mull to the casing. The spine should be left unglued so it is flexible as the book opens. It is clamped and allowed to dry overnight.
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| Gluing block to casing. |
Making the Contact Prints
Contact prints are simple but it is good to read up on how it is done. In the distant past it was the cheapest way for amateur photographers to make their prints as enlargers were expensive. With gaslight paper one could do this with a contact printing frame and a gas or electric light. The paper was relatively insensitive and so could be handled in dim light before being exposed with brighter light so no need for a darkroom. It is a simple technique but worth reading about if you haven't done it before.
Many people use a simple bulb of varying brightness or they raise and lower the bulb to change the brightness. I use my enlarger as it makes a comfortable work area. I also can use my
automated VC filter arrangement and so stay with my split filter methodology. I cut 8x10 paper into 4x5 pieces using a paper cutter under the safelight. I then position the negative over the paper and use a clean piece of glass from a small photo frame to hold the negative down. I started out with RC paper but once I got the hang of it I switched to Ilford MGIV Cooltone FB paper. This paper has a definite curl to it and the glass holds it flat. The negative should be placed on the paper emulsion side down.
I run a test print that is split down the middle with the high contrast on one side and low contrast on the other. I do this by covering with a piece of card one half of the paper sandwich at a time and then progressively cover for each exposure interval. From this I judge a full sheet exposure.and adjust accordingly. I plan on making more than one copy of this book. so I make 5 identical prints and then develop them all at once. Developing is no different than any other print.
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| Example Test Print #5 filter right side, #0 filter left side |
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| Example final print |
Some things I noticed about these photos is that they have a few flaws. The film is Ansco which was part of Agfa after 1920. However in 1941 the US Government seized it as an enemy (German) asset. It was run by the government until the last assets were sold in 1960. If may not have been the best quality by 1948. It is apparent the developing is uneven, probably the result of insufficient agitation during tank development. There is consistent light leak present in the lower right of many but not all negatives. It could be one film holder leaked. Some negatives are very scratched. I believe my grandfather worked around these defects when making prints by cropping out the bad areas.
For example he made a photo of one of his finished tables here...
This image I was able to distort and crop to get the photo off the table top...
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| Extracted tabletop photo |
I then scaled and stretched for the best fit to the original negative. The pink portion shows the table top crop.
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| Merged from original negative to show final crop. (Note flaws on right edge the crop may have been intended to avoid.) |
I will need to make about 30 prints for the 30 pages of the book. I ended up with a stack of photos!
The next problem I faced was gluing the photos to the pages. Given the numbers I decided to make a small guide that consisted of a right angle piece of thick card or Bristol board and glued some guides on two edges so that when I slid it up against the corner of the book pages it could precisely center the photo.
Gluing I am always conflicted about. Most liquid glues are messy and pucker the paper. I settled on glue tape which works well when it works well and finally glue dots when this failed me. I fear the glue may not last long. Some day I may try dry mounting. (Since I did this project I discovered 3M PMA and would use it if I did this again.)
As I did not use all the pages in the pre-bound book I had to cut away the unused pages. This is done with some backing material behind the page placed near the binding and a straight edge on top and simply cutting along the straight edge with an exacto blade.
Finally I added a small sleeve on the back page and inserted a small Fresnel lens so that one could magnify the small prints. The project came out well. I would use a stiffer cardboard for the covers in future as the cover has a tendency to warp slightly.
I gave the book to my father as birthday gift and he was very pleased which warmed my heart enormously.
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