Terry King n.d. The south aisle of Chichester Cathedral
Autotype carbon tissue print Provided by the artist - Terry King A significant problem was that, as working methods had not been well enough established to give consistent quality, many albumen prints faded. Other methods than those using silver salts were looked for. The first successful commercial method of making non-silver prints was Swan's carbon print of 1864 that was first marketed by the Autotype Company that continued to make carbon tissue until 2009. At the end the tissue was made for the copper plate gravure process. Carbon referred to the carbon black pigment originally used as the pigment where the varying thickness of dichromated gelatine gave the gradations in the print. The print here was made using Autotype carbon tissue for gravure. The process gives probably the best results of any photographic printing process and it will accept negatives of a density range of up to 2.8. The pigment, iron oxide, discolours as the copper plate is etched. As it gives the burnt sienna of renaissance drawings, I am happy to use it.
