WORKSHOP – KALLITYPE, TORSTEN WIECZOREK

Our workshop is for beginners. After a quick introduction and historic overview, you will learn how to prepare the needed chemicals and print your negatives.

Kallitype is one of a number of printing processes in the iron-silver family along with many others, including Van Dyke Brown and argyrotype. There are some similarities among these processes, but in kallitype the light-sensitive element is ferric oxalate; in Van Dyke Brown and argyrotype it is ferric ammonium citrate. The ferric oxalate makes a superior process in several important ways: it permits darker shadows, i.e. more density, and it allows for extensive contrast control.

The basic theory of kallitype printing is found in the works of Sir John Herschel of 1842. However, it was not until 1889 that W. W. J. Nicol patented the first iron-silver process and he is widely considered to be the inventor of the kallitype process.

Our workshop is for beginners. After a quick introduction and historic overview, you will learn how to prepare the needed chemicals and print your negatives.

Part 1

• What is a Kallitype?
• Science behind making Kallitypes
• How to make Kallitypes

Part 2

• Emulsions for Kallitypes
• About Papers
• About negatives
• Toning