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			carbon process       LONDON steps Simple transfer carbon transfer ‘80s 22.5 x 31.5 cm
	the carbon process            The carbon process (pigment paper) ‘simple or double transfert’, was invented to have the best reproduction quality and stability even better that the silver emulsions (still the silver was mixed to albumen and not to gelatine, with several problems).      The handling is complex and delicate and consists in preparing a temporary support paper, poured with warm gelatine coloured with lampblack (that’s why ‘carbon’) or insoluble dye, said ‘tissue paper’. After drying, it is sensitized with a chrome salt and exposed to U.V. light in firm contact under a proper negative. The paper is dampened with water and the jelly image laying upon it, not visible jet, is transferred to a final mounting paper (simple transfer) on which a ‘strip’ is carried out in warm water to eliminate the unhardened stuff (dye, jelly and salt) still water-soluble. The ‘double transfer’ were performed to rearrange right-left view starting with old thick glass negatives.      The carbon process permits a halftone reproducibility really rich and is one of the two legs on which the héliogravure is built. The final result is absolutely unalterable.		Photogravure   Photogravure   Dichromated gum   Carbon process   Kallitype  Cyanotype   Silver print   Toning   BLACKHOLES  heliogravure 2006  WITH-DRAWN  heliogravure 2001  Questioni di Stile        - quotations