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ALTERNATE
PROCESSES IN
PHOTOGRAPHY
Technique, History, and Creative Potential

Brian Arnold

New York | Oxford


Oxfor d U niv ersit y Pr ess

00-Arnold-FM.indd 1 12/1/16 11:00 AM


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without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN 13: 978-0-19-939039-7


ISBN 10: 0-19-939039-8

Printing number: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the United States of America


on acid-free paper

00-Arnold-FM.indd 2 12/1/16 11:00 AM


Contents
Acknowledgments................................................................ix Chapter 2 Paper................................................19
Introduction............................................................................xi

Historical Introduction.................................................... 19
Chapter 1 Negatives........................................1 Making Paper.................................................................. 21
Paper Terminology..........................................................23
Digital Negatives................................................................1 Tooth.............................................................................. 23
Required Materials........................................................ 1 Finish............................................................................... 23
Darkroom Negatives.........................................................1 Sizing............................................................................. 24
Required Materials........................................................ 1 Acid-Free....................................................................... 24
The Importance of Making Good Negatives............ 2 Deckle............................................................................ 24
Historical Introduction...................................................... 3 Grain.............................................................................. 25
Traditional Darkroom Options...................................... 6 Weight........................................................................... 25
Digital Negatives............................................................... 8 Handmade Paper....................................................... 25
Primary Photoshop Tools............................................. 8 Machine-Made Paper............................................... 26
Contrast Controls: Levels Moldmade Paper....................................................... 26
and Curves................................................... 8 Types of Paper.................................................................26
Image Mode....................................................10 Writing Paper.............................................................. 27
Invert...................................................................10 Drawing Paper............................................................ 27
Layer Adjustments............................................ 11 Printmaking Paper....................................................... 27
Sharpening.......................................................12 Watercolor Paper....................................................... 28
Image Size........................................................12 Other Options............................................................. 28
Negative Supports......................................................15 Preshrinking......................................................................29
Acetate...............................................................15 Sizing..................................................................................29
Paper and Vellum............................................15 Spray Starch................................................................. 29
Pictorico and Other Inkjet Films....................15 Arrowroot Starch.........................................................30
Film......................................................................16 Gesso............................................................................30
Making the Negative..................................................... 16 Gum Arabic.................................................................30
File Types............................................................................17 Gelatin............................................................................31
Wrapping It Up............................................................... 18 Other Supports................................................................32

00-Arnold-FM.indd 3 12/1/16 11:00 AM


iv Cont ent s

Fabrics........................................................................... 32 Making the Print..............................................................56


Canvas.......................................................................... 33 The Negative............................................................... 56
Wood, Glass, Ceramics, and Metal.................... 33 Papers............................................................................ 56
Wrapping It Up...............................................................34 Mixing the Sensitizer...................................................57
Exposure........................................................................ 58
Chapter 3 Salted Paper (Calotype).... 35 Development................................................................ 58
Clearing/Finishing...................................................... 59
Required Chemicals........................................................35 Toning............................................................................ 59
Optional Chemicals........................................................36 Tea and Coffee..............................................60
Historical Introduction.................................................... 37 Borax.................................................................60
Chemistry........................................................................... 41 Dektol/Print Developer..................................60
Sensitizer........................................................................41 Ammonia...........................................................61
Development................................................................ 43 Sodium Carbonate.........................................61
Toner.............................................................................. 43 Tannic Acid.......................................................61
Fixer................................................................................ 44 Troubleshooting...............................................................62
Clearing........................................................................ 44 Staining.......................................................................... 62
Making the Print..............................................................44 Weak Prints.................................................................. 63
Negatives..................................................................... 44 Wrapping It Up...............................................................63
Paper.............................................................................. 45
Coating......................................................................... 45 Chapter 5 Van Dyke Brown.................... 65
Exposure........................................................................ 45
Development................................................................ 46 Required Chemicals........................................................65
Toning............................................................................ 46 Optional Chemicals........................................................65
Fixing.............................................................................. 46 Historical Introduction....................................................66
Clearing and Washing............................................. 46 Chemistry........................................................................... 67
Troubleshooting............................................................... 47 Sensitizer....................................................................... 67
Fading............................................................................ 47 Development................................................................ 68
Weak Prints.................................................................. 47 Toners............................................................................. 69
Wrapping It Up............................................................... 47 Fixing.............................................................................. 69
Clearing Agents.......................................................... 70
Chapter 4 Cyanotype................................... 49 Contrast Control.......................................................... 70
Making the Print..............................................................70
Required Chemicals........................................................49 The Negative............................................................... 70
Optional Chemicals........................................................49 Papers.............................................................................71
Historical Introduction....................................................50 Coating..........................................................................71
Chemistry...........................................................................54 Exposure.........................................................................71
Sensitizer....................................................................... 54 Development.................................................................71
Development................................................................ 55 Toning............................................................................ 72
Clearing Baths............................................................. 55 Fixing.............................................................................. 73
Other Chemicals......................................................... 56 Clearing and Washing............................................. 73

00-Arnold-FM.indd 4 12/1/16 11:00 AM


Contents v

Troubleshooting............................................................... 73 Ziatype: Required Chemicals.......................................92


Dark Prints..................................................................... 73 Ziatype: Optional Chemicals.......................................93
Light Prints...................................................................... 73 Kallitype: Historical Introduction.................................94
Streaking........................................................................74 Kallitype: Chemistry........................................................95
Wrapping It Up............................................................... 74 Sensitizer....................................................................... 95
Development................................................................ 96
Chapter 6 Platinum and Palladium....75 Toning............................................................................ 97
Clearing Baths............................................................. 98
Required Chemicals........................................................ 75 Fixer................................................................................ 98
Optional Chemicals........................................................ 75 Contrast Control.......................................................... 98
Historical Introduction.................................................... 76 Kallitype: Making the Print...........................................99
Chemistry...........................................................................80 The Negative............................................................... 99
Sensitizer....................................................................... 80 Papers............................................................................ 99
Development.................................................................81 Coating......................................................................... 99
Ammonium Citrate Developer......................81 Exposure...................................................................... 100
Potassium Oxalate Developer......................81 Development.............................................................. 100
Cold Bath Developer.....................................81 Clearing Baths........................................................... 100
Clearing Baths............................................................. 82 Toning.......................................................................... 100
Other Chemicals......................................................... 82 Fixing............................................................................. 101
Gold Chloride................................................. 82 Final Wash.................................................................. 101
Na2.................................................................... 82 Kallitype: Troubleshooting...........................................101
Making the Print..............................................................83 Yellow Highlights........................................................ 101
The Negative............................................................... 83 Streaking...................................................................... 101
Papers............................................................................ 83 Weak or Faded Prints............................................. 102
Mixing the Sensitizer.................................................. 83 Ziatype: Historical Introduction................................. 102
Further Contrast Control............................................ 86 Ziatype: Chemistry........................................................104
Palladium Combined with Platinum........... 86 Sensitizer..................................................................... 104
Gold Chloride................................................. 86 Ammonium Ferric Oxalate......................... 104
Exposing the Print........................................................ 86 Lithium Palladium Chloride......................... 104
Developing the Print................................................... 87 Cesium Palladium Chloride........................105
Troubleshooting...............................................................88 Ammonium Dichromate...............................105
Fogging......................................................................... 88 Gold Chloride................................................105
Solarization/“Bronzing”............................................ 88 Sodium Tungstate..........................................105
Wrapping It Up...............................................................89 Tween 20........................................................105
Clearing Baths........................................................... 106
Chapter 7 Variations on Platinum Ziatype: Making the Print...........................................106
and Palladium...........................91 The Negative............................................................. 106
Paper............................................................................ 106
Kallitype: Required Chemicals..................................... 91 Coating....................................................................... 106
Kallitype: Optional Chemicals.....................................92 Exposure.......................................................................107

00-Arnold-FM.indd 5 12/1/16 11:00 AM


vi Cont ent s

Development/Processing........................................ 108 Paint..................................................................127


Ziatype: Troubleshooting............................................ 108 Gum Arabic....................................................127
Weak Prints................................................................ 108 Base Layer.......................................................127
Inconsistent Results.................................................... 108 Wrapping It Up............................................................. 128
Wrapping It Up............................................................. 108
Chapter 9 Lifts and Transfers............... 129
Chapter 8 Gum Bichromate....................111
Required Materials....................................................... 129
Required Chemicals....................................................... 111 Historical Introduction..................................................130
Optional Chemicals....................................................... 111 Ideas, Methods, and Techniques.............................. 132
Historical Introduction...................................................112 Tape Lifts......................................................................132
Chemistry..........................................................................114 Gesso or Gel/Matte Medium Transfers..............132
Bichromates................................................................. 114 Acrylic Transfers as Transparencies.......................135
Gum Arabic................................................................ 115 Solvent Transfers........................................................ 136
Other Colloids............................................................ 116 Inkjet Transfer Prints................................................... 136
Albumen.......................................................... 116 Method One................................................. 136
Glue.................................................................. 116 Method Two...................................................137
Watercolors................................................................. 116 Wrapping It Up............................................................. 138
Clearing: Sodium/Potassium Metabisulfite......... 116
Making the Print............................................................. 117 Chapter 10 Wet Plate Collodion..........139
The Basics: Working in Black and White................ 117
Negatives.................................................................... 117 Required Chemicals...................................................... 139
Papers........................................................................... 117 Optional Chemicals......................................................140
Preshrinking...................................................... 118 Historical Introduction...................................................141
More on Sizing.............................................. 118 Equipment........................................................................ 144
Mixing the Sensitizer................................................. 119 Chemistry......................................................................... 146
Coating........................................................................ 121 Sensitizer......................................................................146
Exposure....................................................................... 121 Developers...................................................................148
Development............................................................... 121 Fixer...............................................................................149
Registration................................................................. 123 Varnish......................................................................... 150
Clearing...................................................................... 124 Making the Photograph.............................................. 150
Advanced Printing: Full Color.................................... 124 Preparing the Plates.................................................. 150
Additive versus Subtractive Color......................... 124 Glass for Ambrotypes................................. 150
Negatives....................................................................125 Tin for Tintypes............................................... 151
Exposing the Print...................................................... 126 Sensitizing the Plates.................................................152
Troubleshooting............................................................. 127 Exposure.......................................................................153
Staining.........................................................................127 Development...............................................................154
Development..................................................127 Fixing the Plates..........................................................155
Sizing................................................................127 Washing the Plates...................................................155

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Contents vii

Drying the Plates........................................................156 Fixing............................................................................. 174


Varnishing the Plates..................................................156 Clearing....................................................................... 174
Turning the Glass Image Positive.............................. 157 Washing...................................................................... 174
Troubleshooting............................................................. 157 Toning/Postdevelopment Processing..................... 174
Wrapping It Up............................................................. 158 Troubleshooting..............................................................175
Image Density............................................................. 175
Emulsion Lacks Stability............................................ 175
Chapter 11 Liquid Emulsions................... 161 Peeling and Cracking...............................................176
Wrapping It Up............................................................. 176
Required Chemicals.......................................................161
Optional Chemicals...................................................... 162
Chapter 12 Combination Printing....... 177
Historical Introduction.................................................. 163
Plates and Negatives...............................................163
Gum Bichromate........................................................... 178
Photographic Papers and Printing..........................163
Platinum/Cyanotype..................................................... 179
Liquid Emulsions..........................................................166
Cyanotype/Van Dyke Brown.....................................180
Making the Print............................................................ 168
Mixing with Printmaking and Transfer
Chemistry.....................................................................168
Techniques..................................................................180
Emulsions......................................................................168
Wrapping It Up............................................................. 182
Processing Chemistry................................................169
Preparing a Surface for Coating...........................170
Metal................................................................170 Appendix: Chemical Safety............................................. 183
Glass and Ceramics.................................... 171 Bibliography....................................................................... 186
Wood.............................................................. 171 Suggested Websites......................................................... 189
Coating the Emulsion................................................172 Glossary.............................................................................192
Exposure and Development....................................173 Index...................................................................................201

00-Arnold-FM.indd 7 12/1/16 11:00 AM


00-Arnold-FM.indd 8 12/1/16 11:00 AM
Acknowledgments

There are a number of people I need to thank, people who provided nec-
essary support and encouragement at different stages of my development and ed-
ucation. First, I thank Charles Walters, Eric Paddock, and Frank Gohlke. If I had
not met these men, I would probably have never become a photographer. I was
also fortunate to study with a number of exceptional photographers while work-
ing to complete my MFA, specifically Abelardo Morell and Laura McPhee, both of
whom instilled some essential questions about and love for photography in my
thinking. Also, I thank both Terri Weifenbach and Robert Adams; although never
in the classroom, both these photographers keep teaching me more and more, in
ways that reflect my understanding both of photography and of myself.
I have also been extremely fortunate to have a number of wonderful col-
leagues over the years. I first thank Roger Freeman and Steve Tourlentes, both of
whom took some chances to help get my academic career started. I also thank
Leslie Bellavance at Alfred University and Kaja McGowan at Cornell, who gave
me office space to help complete this book. At the Eastman House, I thank Ross
Knapper and Joe Struble, who spent hours with me helping to find the right pho-
tographers for illustrating the text. I also thank Diane O’Connor and Rich Barker
at Mohawk Paper and Kathleen Flynn at Dieu Donné for the opportunity to see
and learn more about paper production as both an industry and an art. I also
thank Christine Serchia, my biggest fan and greatest supporter for so many years.
I have also been fortunate to have great and challenging proofreaders. Rich-
ard Sullivan has provided valuable assistance at every step of this project and gave
insight into my chapter on ziatype and kallitype printing. Richard and his wife,
Melody Bostick, have provided hospitality and support in so many ways, out of an
obvious love for photography and its many forms. John Coffer is an incredible re-
source for photographic history and techniques and lent support in my writing on
wet plate collodion photography. I also thank Laurie Snyder and Mark Osterman
for looking over different chapters at various stages of this project. Geoffrey Ber-
liner’s wealth of knowledge on photographic history and technique proved inspi-
rational at a time I needed to work through some struggles in pulling this all
together.
I also thank the photographers who contributed pictures to this book, many I
have admired and many I am grateful to call long-time friends: Andrea Modica,
Emmet Gowin, Joni Sternbach, Accra Shepp, Paul Graham, Lois Conner, Willie
Osterman, France Scully Osterman, the Getty Museum, the Colorado Historical
Society and the Denver Public Library, Laurie Snyder, John Wood (in memory),
Carol Wood, Tony Gonzalez, Dan Estabrook, John Dugdale, Zoe Zimmerman,

00-Arnold-FM.indd 9 12/1/16 11:00 AM


x Acknowl e d gment s

Christina Z. Anderson, Clarrisa Sligh, Tom Delooza, Erik Kessels, Penelope


Umbrico, Sarah Carman, Kate Stalter, Katie Wong, George Louden, Tanya Marcuse,
Kenro Izu, Brenton Hamilton, Bea N ­ ettles, Deborah Luster, David Prifiti (and
Gallery Naga), and Carl Weese. I also thank many wonderful students, who have
taught me a lot over the years; a couple of them offered pictures for this book.
All of these contributions helped make this a much better book. I also thank Nick
Marshall, Alison Nordström, and Lisa Hostetler at the Eastman House and Tate
Shaw at Visual Studies Workshop.
It goes without saying that I need to thank my wonderful family. I have two
remarkably accomplished, generous, and supportive brothers, Dan and Chris,
and an incredibly supportive and creative sister-in-law, Edie Carey. My mom and
dad—well, I cannot say enough about the support they have offered for oh so many
years now. And then I have a wonderful family I call home, my wife, Farr Carey,
and my amazing children, Sadie and James.

00-Arnold-FM.indd 10 12/1/16 11:00 AM


Introduction

It was close to 20 years ago, but I still remember it vividly. I was taking a
week-long, intensive workshop on photographic printmaking taught by Frank
Gohlke (Figure I-1). We spent our time together working on advanced silver gela-
tin techniques—bleaching, toning, using print brighteners—and were also intro-
duced to a few other of what we called alternative processes: palladium, kallitype,
and cyanotype. Many of these techniques have continued to be a part of my life’s
work, but that is not what I remember most.
About halfway through the workshop, at the end of a long day of printing,
Frank pulled out some boxes of photographs he brought along to show us. This
was an important time in Frank’s career; Measure of Emptiness had been recently
published, and he was still involved in making his photographs of Mount

F I-1: A photograph from the


series Measure of Emptiness,
pictures of grain elevators
made in the Midwest. © Frank
Gohlke, 1975; courtesy of the
George Eastman Museum.

00-Arnold-FM.indd 11 12/1/16 11:00 AM


xii Int ro duction

St. Helens, rephotographing some of the original landscapes he made during his
initial survey of the eruption. He showed us his prints from these projects. And
then he also showed us pictures he had collected from friends and colleagues: Eric
Paddock, Lois Conner, Robert Adams, Paul Caponigro, and Walker Evans. As he
spoke of these pictures, he was full of wonderful wisdom, intelligence, and love. It
hit me like a ton of bricks: I knew I had to know more about this way of
thinking.
Close to this time, I landed my first job in photography, working in the photo
archives at the Colorado Historical Museum. My first day there, the chief curator
in the department, Eric Paddock, came down with a small selection of 20 × 24
glass plate negatives made by William Henry Jackson and the Detroit Publishing
Co. (Color Plate 1). He gave us two days to print the negatives. There were three of
us working in the darkroom, and it took all of us to handle and position the nega-
tives. These were a remarkable couple of afternoons: To see the skill and tech-
nique that must have gone into making such large negatives; to see these views of
landscapes in Colorado I had known all my life; and to share in these experiences
just by helping to make the prints. That really sealed the deal; I knew I was a
photographer.
Working in the museum offered a number of other resources and learning
opportunities. In addition to housing the William Henry Jackson and Detroit
Publishing Co. archives, it was here I first saw photographs by Timothy O ­ ’Sullivan,
Laura Gilpin, and Lee Friedlander, as well as my first albumen prints, tintype
albums, and carte-de-vistes.
F I-2: When I first started It was a couple of years down the road before I set up my first photographic
photographing seriously, I studio. I was young, recently out of college, and working for minimum wage. I
began by working from the knew from these past experiences that I did not need expensive equipment to
Colorado landscape, largely
make photographs. I was living in Denver at the time and knew it would be easy
based on things I learned
working at the archives of the
to print my photographs under the sun (Figure I-2). I bought an inexpensive 4 × 5
Colorado History Museum. All camera. Then, I went to a junkyard north of the city and got a used, stainless steel
my photographs from that time sink and finally salvaged construction materials from my dad’s business for coun-
were palladium prints printed tertops and built my first darkroom for around $100.
under the sun. Petroleum Despite my lack of resources, I wanted to make pictures as well crafted as the
Refineries in Commerce City,
photographs Frank showed us that afternoon. I made gum bichromate and platinum/
CO, 1996. Photograph by the
author. palladium prints under the sun. I did this on my own for several years, working
with simple resources and trying to
make beautiful printed photographs
about my home in Colorado.
I like to tell all young and aspir-
ing photographers that although each
of them has a camera in pocket (is it
possible to buy a phone without a
camera now?), none of them knows as
much about photography as they
think. To illustrate this point, I turn
my classroom into a camera obscura
(a trick I learned from Abelardo
Morell while working with him
during my years in graduate school;
Figure I-3). It is not difficult: make
the room light tight and then make a
small, circular hole for light to come
in. Yet without fail, the students are

00-Arnold-FM.indd 12 12/1/16 11:00 AM


Introduction xiii

dumbfounded when they see an image from the outside world projected on the
room’s wall and without the aid of any technology. I then go on to talk about how we
reached photography today, showing them different cameras and talking about the
evolution of photographic techniques and processes.
There are more photographic possibilities and processes available to the pho-
tographer than most recognize. It has been more than 170 years since Henry Fox
Talbot (1800–1877) and Louis Daguerre (1787–1851) secured patents for the first
photographic processes. And in those years, the drive to make pictures has gone
down many roads, and many processes have come and gone. What we today call
alternative processes typically references photographic techniques that never had
any commercial applications. Despite having no commercial appeal, many of
these processes continue to be used today because they provide unique ways to
feed our imaginations and to reflect our experiences.
I firmly believe that real photographic literacy today means looking at and
knowing as many photographic techniques as possible. In my teaching practice, I
try not to prioritize any photographic technology; I introduce and encourage
techniques from the 19th century to the present. In this transitional period, as F I-3: Camera Obscura Image
photography becomes more and more digitized, I often regret how quickly and of Museums across the Street in
easily we forgot what we once knew. I believe that the more tools and techniques Our Bedroom, 1991. To make
one has as a photographer, the greater the photographic vocabulary and thus the this photograph, Morell turned
the room into a camera
more possibilities available.
obscura using black plastic
Photographs, in my mind, are still objects, and I make a distinction between with a small hole cut into it
photographs and images. The image is an essential part of the photograph, per- over one of the windows and
haps the most essential part, and yet the photograph is an object that exists in a then placed a camera in the
physical form. What is represented in a photograph is always an essential part of room and made an eight-hour-
its meaning—and I repeatedly emphasize to my students that this is the most long exposure of light moving
through the hole and into the
important part of any photographic inquiry—but the process with which the pho-
room. The picture is about the
tograph resolves also gives it meaning. As the maker, you develop your own rela- most basic phenomenon of
tionship to an image through process (and I do believe this helps give life to the light and photography.
picture). But also, how the photograph looks and ages is part of how we derive © Abelardo Morrel, silver
meaning from an image. In pursuing my work over the years, I have always tried gelatin print; courtesy of the
George Eastman Museum.
to find new ways to emphasize my
inquiry into what the form of the
photograph can be.
In teaching photography, I like
to encourage the same from my stu-
dents. Any real practitioner will
make unique contributions to any
photographic process and use the
rules and procedures as guidelines
and suggestions, ultimately finding
a unique approach. Alternative pro-
cesses necessitate such thinking.
The processes are more idiosyncratic
and particular than most of the
mainstream photographic tech-
niques. Typically, the students I see
excelling the most in my courses are
the ones that can read the text and
follow directions and then learn
from the materials and processes
themselves.

00-Arnold-FM.indd 13 12/1/16 11:00 AM


xiv Int ro duction

I finished my graduate education in photography in 1998. Digital photogra-


phy had arrived, but most of the photographers I knew and studied with still were
not taking it seriously. A short time after that, digital exploded on the scene. The
repercussions of the digital revolution are many. The field is completely different
now, at least in regard to the materials that define the popular uses of photogra-
phy and the ways in which we interact with pictures. There were and still are
contrary opinions and movements, however. Different schools of photographers
responded to the development of digital imaging by going back and redefining
how they had conceived of photography from the beginning, as a chemical, hand-
made process. Prominent artists like Chuck Close and Adam Fuss (Color Plate 4)
rediscovered daguerreotypes; Abelardo Morell pursued his camera obscura pho-
tographs (pictures about primitive photographic phenomena—see the example
F I-4: The Ring Toss is now an
earlier in this chapter); and Sally Mann (Color Plate 3) began working in wet plate
iconic photograph in the collodion. Such trends and movements continue today as, with the continued
history of the medium, as well march toward digital photography, many practitioners find their needs met work-
as a classic example of the ing with unique handmade techniques and large-format cameras.
Pictorialist style. Clarence H. A study of the history of photography shows that similar bubbles and trends in
White, platinum print; courtesy
which alternative process work emerged to help define the medium have happened
of the George Eastman
Museum. time and again. In the early 20th century, a school of photographers we call the Picto-
rialists emerged. The Pictorialists—
with leading photographers like
Henrich Kühn (Color Plate 7), Robert
Demachy, Clarence White (Figure I-4)
(Color Plate 31), Alfred Stieglitz, and
Alvin Langdon Coburn (Figure I-5)
leading the charge—sought to have
photography legitimized as a fine art.
To do so, they tried to make photogra-
phy look like other fine arts, working
primarily with classical themes of
landscape, women, children, and love.
They also employed a number of the
handmade alternative processes,
using different paper supports to help
facilitate a painterly look.
Many of the photographers
who later led the transition into
­Modernism—among them Edward
Steichen (Color Plate 64), Edward
Weston (Color Plates 5 and 32), and
Paul Strand—began working in the
Pictorialist vein before ultimately
rejecting it in favor of the emerging
Modernist aesthetic (Color Plate 5).
Today, the Pictorialists are often triv-
ialized, largely because they ignored
the unique characteristics of photog-
raphy in their imitation of other
artistic forms and appearances.
Nonetheless, their work helped pave
the way for a broader cultural under-
standing of photography as a fine art.

00-Arnold-FM.indd 14 12/1/16 11:00 AM


Introduction xv

Again, in the early 1970s, alterna-


tive process photography played an
important role in defining the medi-
um’s identity. The 1970s are often
called the Golden Age of Photography.
The medium underwent a number of
important transformations at this
time. The debate as to whether pho-
tography could or should be consid-
ered a fine art continued. Historians
and critics like John Szarkowski,
the curator of photography at the
Museum of Modern Art, and Nathan
Lyons, the founder of the Visual Stud-
ies Workshop and curator at the
George Eastman House in Rochester,
provided important leadership. They
worked to establish important collec-
tions of photographs and organized
insightful exhibitions that demon-
strated what the medium had to offer
the greater cultural discussion. Addi-
tionally, photography emerged in
universities and art academies across
the country, and it became a part of
Master of Fine Arts programs. Pho-
tography was still relatively cheap to
pursue and even cheaper to collect,
and important cultural resources
were given over to help voice the grow-
ing potential of the medium and its
audience. Influential photography F I-5: Another example of
programs like the Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of New Pictorialist-era photography.
Mexico had students and faculty developing work in alternative processes, with new Coburn was a master printer,
and innovative work being produced by photographers like Bea Nettles (Figure I-6), reflected in this gum
Betty Hahn (Color Plate 28 and Color Plate 41), and Todd Walker. And then, in 1979, bichromate and platinum
combination print. The Tunnel
William Crawford published his important book The Keepers of Light, perhaps the
Builders, 1907, Alvin Langdon
first of many texts and working manuals devoted to alternative process photography. Coburn; courtesy of the George
Any photographic process has a history longer than that recorded by its in- Eastman Museum.
vention or patent. Part of my fascination with photography is how it mixes chem-
istry, optics, and art. The development of any photographic process we know
today is the result of contributions from all of these fields.
Each chapter in this text describes a different process, beginning with a brief
historical introduction. In no way are these intended to be complete or decisive
histories, but I do think it is important for any practitioner to have some sense of
the history of the medium. There is plenty more information to be found if you are
interested in looking further into any of these processes.
After these brief histories, each of the chapters provides an overview for get-
ting started with the different techniques. These include information about chem-
istry, negatives, paper, application, and troubleshooting. Additionally, I have
provided some visual examples by both historical and contemporary artists work-
ing in each of these processes.

00-Arnold-FM.indd 15 12/1/16 11:00 AM


xvi Int ro duction

It is important to note that each


of these techniques requires a
hands-on approach to mixing and
using chemistry. (There are distribu-
tors that sell premixed kits, but you
can save a great deal of money by
learning to mix and handle chemis-
try on your own.) This requires care,
caution, and responsibility. Any
chemistry you receive in the mail
should come with a Material Safety
Data Sheet (or MSDS); this informa-
tion can also easily be found online.
It is important to recognize the par-
ticular characteristics and follow the
precautions necessary for handling
each of the chemicals. If you are put-
ting a studio or workspace together
at home, you should consult with
your local authorities about chemi-
cal handling and disposal. Not all
chemicals can go down the drain!
Part of the initial attraction to
alternative process photography for
me was expense. High-end inkjet
printers can sell for many thousands
of dollars, not to mention the other
gear necessary for processing photo-
graphs. Technically, one can make a
camera out of shoebox and then pro-
cess photographs under the sun;
photography need not be an expen-
F I-6: A detail from a unique sive endeavor.
artist’s book made by Bea
In assembling an alternative process darkroom, perhaps the most important
Nettles. Bound in a three-ring
binder, this print is gum issue is a lighting source. With one exception, the printing techniques used in this
bichromate with magazine book require printing with ultraviolet light. The best source for ultraviolet light is
transfers, applied color, and the sun. My earliest work in alternative processes was done in Colorado, where the
hand stitching, all on buckram sun was a reliable source. Depending on where you live, you might need to look
cloth. Padded Parades (detail), into artificial lighting sources. Some practitioners, even in regions with good, re-
1971, © Bea Nettles.
liable sunlight, prefer artificial lighting sources, mostly for the continuity they can
provide. There are a number of different alternatives.
The cheapest and most common lighting sources I have seen are uncoated
black-light, florescent bulbs. These bulbs are relatively inexpensive and can pro-
vide even illumination over a large area. Sunlamps, manufactured for tanning,
can be used, although these lamps have a tendency to create substantial heat,
which can create complications in printing. Mercury vapor and metal halide
lamps can be used as well. Art schools are often equipped with plate burners or
graphic arts printers. These units typically have mercury vapor bulbs and often
have vacuum systems for optimal contact. They are a great source for alternative
process printing, but they are expensive.
Once a lighting source is determined, the equipment needs for an alternative
process darkroom are minimal. Sinks can be expensive, particularly if you are

00-Arnold-FM.indd 16 12/1/16 11:00 AM


Introduction xvii

considering the stainless steel models with temperature control. (If you are devel-
oping film, temperature control is important.) I bought my first sink for about $20
in a junkyard. Many photographers save money by building sinks out of wood and
then lining them with epoxy or plastic resins.
The last thing I recommend for an alternative process darkroom—short of the
standard equipment of timers, drying screens, etc.—is a good-quality scale.
Learning to weigh and mix your own chemistry can be satisfying (photography
can still be alchemy) and can also save you a great deal of money.
Every time I teach my course Alternative Processes in Photography, I like to
include an essay by Edward Weston called “Seeing Photographically.” In the essay,
Weston criticizes photographers who get too caught up in technique. What really
matters, he says, is that you are making the images you want, the images connect
with your experience, and that you have enough control over the technique that
you can repeat the results. Seeing photographically means understanding your
materials enough that you can previsualize your pictures. If you can develop this
capability, it does not matter whether your technique is good or bad, but simply
that it is true to your vision.
It is easy for photographers working with alternative processes to become
obsessed with technique. Many of the processes are unforgiving of poor tech-
nique. Anything worth knowing and doing takes a great deal of time to learn and
to develop any kind of proficiency. Working in alternative processes in photogra-
phy takes patience and perseverance. Yet once you have the techniques down, it
can provide a unique and satisfying way to pursue photography and creative life.
This book is intended as an introduction to the processes, and there is much more
about each of them you can learn. Each practitioner will develop his/her own ap-
proach, and in my mind this is a necessary part of owning and previsualizing a
photographic process. This book will give you the tools, resources, and ideas to
begin working in an alternative processes darkroom.

Learn More
• Lyle Rexer’s historical text, Photography’s Antiquarian Avant-Garde,
provides a greater look into how alternative processes developed in and
after the 1970s.
• Burning with Desire, by the historian Geoffrey Batchen, argues that pho-
tography was more than the result of individual genius and creators,
rather, the product of extensive cultural inquiry.
• The historian Larry Schaaf has compiled a series of letters exchanged be-
tween William Henry Fox Talbot and Sir John Herschel in a book called
Out of the Shadows. These exchanges provide insight into the work of
these early pioneers.
• “Seeing Photographically” by Edward Weston is reprinted in Classic
Essays on Photography, edited by Alan Trachtenberg.
• For more complete information on light sources, I recommend the web-
site unblinkingeye: http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Light/light.html.

00-Arnold-FM.indd 17 12/1/16 11:00 AM


00-Arnold-FM.indd 18 12/1/16 11:00 AM
1
Negatives

With few exceptions, the printing processes outlined here require contact print-
ing, meaning the size of the print is the same as that of the negative. This chapter
will cover several methods for making large-format negatives, emphasizing digi-
tal options.

Digital Negatives
Required Materials
• Digital capture (camera or scanner)
• Photoshop (or similar image-processing software)
• Printer
• Negative support materials (paper, film, acetate, inkjet film, etc.)

Darkroom Negatives
Required Materials
• Orthochromatic film
• Black and white enlarging equipment and chemistry

When working digitally, the image is first brought into Photoshop


and then adjusted for scale, contrast, mode (RGB, CMYK, grey scale, etc.), and
sharpness. Before being printed to the primary support, the image is inverted to
negative.

01-Arnold-Ch01.indd 1 11/30/16 10:44 AM


2 Chapter 1 N e gatives

When using darkroom methods, first a black and white negative is enlarged to
the scale of the final print. A film positive is produced directly onto the orthochro-
matic film (or film that is sensitive to all visible spectrums of light except red). Be-
cause of their sensitivity, these films are unique in that they can be used under red
safelights (please note, red, not the usual amber lights!), which allows for an easy
working process. This film is processed like any black and white paper, meaning
that once exposed, the sheet of film is processed in a developer bath, stop, and then
fixer. The film should then be processed in an agent for clearing out the fixer and
finally washed. Once the film positive is correctly developed, washed, and dried, it
is contact printed to a second piece of ortho film to produce the final negative.

The Importance of Making Good Negatives


Studying alternative process photography often necessitates a greater under-
standing of photographic technique and theory. In many ways, the processes
discussed in this book are simpler than most photographic processes. But in
others ways, these processes are more demanding and less forgiving, especially
when first getting started. I have never been one for studying densitometry or
other theoretical methods to explain how to make good negatives; I prefer a
more intuitive and visual understanding. Nonetheless, I think it is important to
understand how negatives are made and to know something about the tools for
evaluating them and understanding how they will translate into different kinds
of prints.
It is important to emphasize a photographic truth: good negatives make good
prints. That said, I want to mention again the essay by Edward Weston, “Seeing
Photographically.” It is worth quoting at some length, but before doing so, it is also
important to understand that although Weston is talking about the technologies
of his time, he is still talking about the same distractions we face today in terms
of understanding photography as both a technical and a creative medium (two
things that sometimes converge but are not always the same):

This very richness of control facilities often acts as a barrier to creative work.
The fact is that very few photographers ever master their medium. Instead
they allow the medium to master them and go on an endless squirrel cage
chase from new lens to new paper to new developer to new gadget, never stay-
ing with one piece of equipment long enough to learn its full capacities, be-
coming lost in a maze of technical information that is of little or no use since
they don’t know what to do with it.
Only long experience will enable the photographer to subordinate tech-
nical considerations to pictorial aims, but the task can be made immeasur-
ably easier by selecting the simplest possible equipment and procedures and
staying with them. . . . The photographer must learn from the outset to regard
his process as a whole. He should not be concerned with the “right exposure,”
“the perfect negative,” etc. Such notions are mere products of advertising my-
thology. Rather he must learn the kind of negative to produce the kind of
print. . . . With practice this kind of knowledge becomes intuitive; the pho-
tographer learns to see a scene or object in terms of his finished print without
having to give conscious thought to the steps that will be necessary to carry
it out.

01-Arnold-Ch01.indd 2 11/30/16 10:44 AM


Historical Int ro duction 3

Although Weston wrote about the black and white techniques and crafts that
defined the discourse of his day, his words are still remarkably valuable and in-
sightful. Indeed, more than ever it is easier to get lost in technology rather than
making the right investment to understand a limited set of tools and, in turn, use
that investment to develop real sensitivity and creative vision.
Weston suggests something else extremely important here: previsualization.
I often make a distinction between making and taking pictures. Taking pictures
is passive, simply grabbing photographs from the things around you without in-
voking any critical thought or creative goal. Making pictures is active and re-
quires more understanding and engagement or, as Weston describes, the ability to
see the end result before even beginning. In working with alternative photo-
graphic processes, that begins with understanding negatives.

Historical Introduction
Until the development of digital photography, with just a few exceptions, making
photographs meant producing a negative before making a positive image. (The
exceptions are daguerreotypes, wet plate collodion positives, Polaroids, and slide
film.) There is no denying that the digital era has pushed the evolution of photog-
raphy extremely rapidly, although it is important to understand that photography
has been in a state of constant transformation since its inception. Although
­William Henry Fox Talbot was not the first to patent a photographic process, he
was the primary inventor of the method that came to dominate the medium for
more than a century: the two-step process of making negatives before making
positive prints (for more information, see Chapter 3 on salted paper printing).
Since this process was released to the general public, photography has existed in
a state of constant transformation and development.
The first photographic negatives were made on paper in the process that
Talbot developed in 1839 (Figure 1-1). However, users of Talbot’s system quickly
realized that it had a number of different limitations. When compared with the
rich, detailed images provided by daguerreotypes, the completed photographs

F 1-1: Rome, view of the Roman


Forum from the Capitol Hill,
1856, unidentified
photographer; courtesy of the
George Eastman Museum.

01-Arnold-Ch01.indd 3 11/30/16 10:44 AM


4 Chapter 1 N e gatives

lacked detail and rich tonalities. The first improvement was to varnish the paper
negatives with wax, which allowed for more transparency and limited the distor-
tion in the print caused by the paper fibers in the negative.
The next major development in making photographic negatives occurred in
the 1850s, with the development of the wet plate collodion process and the
switch to glass as the primary support (see Chapter 10 on wet plate photography).
Producing negatives on glass resulted in prints with much richer detail and tonal-
ity and allowed for paper photographs to rival those using Daguerre’s process
(Figure 1-2).
Around 1876, two photographic scientists, Ferdinand Hurter and Vero
Charles Driffield, developed a methodology for calculating the sensitivity of a pho-
tographic emulsion. Their work resulted in the methods of sensitometry and
densitometry known today. Sensitometry provided a way to measure the amount
of silver exposed and developed in a photographic process, whereas densitometry
provided a way to measure the accumulation of silver on the exposed surface,
calculating the optical density of an exposed negative or positive. These discover-
ies paved the way for some important advances in photographic emulsions and
films, resulting in the ability to measure, produce, and market films with different
speeds. This ultimately led the way to roll films, film fast enough to allow for
handheld cameras. This might seem like a small achievement today, but the move-
ment from large-format, plate negatives to handheld cameras using flexible roll
film was an essential link in the ongoing democratization of photography.
A film speed refers to its sensitivity to light, typically measured as an ASA or
ISO. The typical speeds range between 100 and 3200; the higher the number, the
more sensitive the film is to light, and thus it requires less exposure. Although
digital cameras do not use film, the same numbers are still used to identify the
camera’s sensitivity to light.
In 1881, George Eastman founded his Eastman Dry Plate Company in
­Rochester, New York, which later was renamed Kodak. In 1885, he released the
first flexible roll films. These products were not made on a clear plastic support.
The light-sensitive emulsion was coated on paper, and during development it was
stripped and transferred to clear, hardened gelatin support for printing. Eastman
released the first transparent plastic film in 1889. These films were highly unsta-
ble and flammable, coated on a surface of nitrocellulose, now typically referred to

F 1-2: Niagara Falls, 1860,


W. & F. Langenheim, courtesy
of the George Eastman
Museum.

01-Arnold-Ch01.indd 4 11/30/16 10:44 AM


Historical Int ro duction 5

as nitrate film. Plastic films were finally perfected in the early 1900s, when
­Eastman Kodak released the first safety films, an emulsion coated on cellulose
acetate. It was not until 1954 that Kodak released Tri-X film, which has been the
industry standard for black and white film since then. Black and white film con-
tinues to evolve today, with ongoing advances in film speed and grain structure,
as well as the addition of different dyes to the gelatin emulsion to change the film’s
sensitivity to particular spectrums of light.
The basic idea of color negatives is the same as black and white, with oppo-
sites translated into positive images. In a black and white negative, black from the
negative translates as white in the print and vice versa, whereas in color, blue
prints yellow, magenta prints green, and so on. Because this book does not really
cover color photography (although see Chapter 8 on gum bichromate printing), I
will not go into the advancements in color photography in much detail. It is, how-
ever, worth taking a quick look at how color films developed.
Color photography precedes color negative film, dating back to the inception
of the medium. By the end of the 19th century, there were legitimate color photo-
graphic processes, although they were extremely difficult and time-consuming,
requiring multiple negatives and that colors be printed one at a time. In the early
20th century, the first films began to emerge. The first commercially produced
color films were glass plates, Lumiére Autochrome, released in 1907. Autochrome
was an additive color process, meaning that layering the three primaries of red,
green, and blue (RGB) develops a full color spectrum (Color Plate 6). Later, color
slide film was also based on additive color theory. Overexposure in slide film re-
sulted in bleached-out images and color, the opposite of what we have come to
know in photographic exposure. However, Autochrome film was very slow and
incompatible with the emerging trend of handheld cameras (see Color Plate 7).
Modern color film emerged in 1935, when Kodak introduced Kodachrome,
which was developed on the theory of subtractive color. White light consists of

F 1-3: In the early 1990s, the


photographer John Loengard
released a series of
photographs about famous
photographs, specifically
looking at the negatives behind
the pictures. Edward Weston,
Pepper #35p, 1930, Center for
Creative Photography,
University of Arizona, Tucson.
Hands: Dianne Milsen,
5/15/1992, © John Loengard,
1992.

01-Arnold-Ch01.indd 5 11/30/16 10:44 AM


6 Chapter 1 N e gatives

the entire spectrum of colors. When you shine white light through colored filters
tinted with the three subtractive primaries—cyan (opposite red light), magenta
(opposite green light), and yellow (opposite blue light), or CMYK (“K” stands for
black)—you can create individual colors. The result depends on the amount of
color that is blocked (or subtracted) by the mix of the three filters. Since Koda-
chrome was developed, color film has continued to work on the subtractive theory
of color. (For more on additive and subtractive color, see Chapter 8 on gum bicar-
bonate printing.) (see Color Plates 8 and 9.)
Today, the options for negative production are extremely varied and versatile.
For an example of creative digital negative production, see Color Plate 37. It is still
possible to work with original, large-format camera negatives with a number of
options for enlarging negatives with traditional darkroom practices. The digital
work environment also provides new possibilities for making negatives, with a
broad range of printers and supports available for production. The different print-
ers available—laser, inkjet, and Imagesetters and film recorders—as well as the
incredible array of supports—paper, acetate, and film—all provide unique possi-
bilities for making negatives. Digital options also allow for much easier and
cheaper methods for large-format negative production. Many of the materials
used for making negatives come in rolls for large-format printers.
In 2011, the British photographer Paul Graham released an interesting body
of work, Films, in some ways summarizing the medium of film and photography
up to the day. For these pictures, Graham made high-resolution, tightly cropped
scans of film negatives he produced for previous photographic projects. Through
scanning, each individual grain of silver and color deposit is revealed with in-
credible precision, and the original photograph is no longer visible. The completed
pictures are remarkable abstractions in their own right, but also document the
structure and material of film. In a way, Graham’s Films shows the best of all
photographic worlds, using what is unique about digital imaging to highlight
what is unique about traditional photographic materials (see Color Plate 10).

Traditional Darkroom Options


Although most workers make negatives digitally—for relatively quick, easy, and
cheap production—it is worth knowing that other options are available. For my
work, I have never used digitally produced negatives, although in this day and age,
that is really the only way I teach my students to work.
For most of these processes, I still feel that original camera negatives are the
best option. This means learning to use a view camera, most commonly 4 × 5 or
8 × 10 (although there are a number of other formats). Too often in my mind, art-
ists, students, and teachers overemphasize the scale of the final print, thinking
bigger is better; a well-made 4 × 5 image can be wonderfully successful and diffi-
cult in its own right. The biggest drawback in working with a view camera is ex-
pense; a consequence of the digital revolution is that film prices have definitely
increased. Many photographers—particularly in the fine arts field—feel that the
image qualities offered with film capture remain superior to those with digital
capture. Even if the final print is produced digitally, many will still use film for the
original capture. Film can produce a longer curve from the shadows to the high-
lights and can provide subtle gradients in tonality and color.
There are other reasons to consider view camera negatives. The more genera-
tions of output and translation between the original capture and the final print,

01-Arnold-Ch01.indd 6 11/30/16 10:44 AM


Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
“Oh! I fancied she would be an older person, or at least a plain
ordinary girl. One doesn’t expect a girl like Geneviève to come out of
a French pastor’s household. Do you like her, Cicely?”
“Of course I do,” said Cicely. “It would be very difficult not to like
her; don’t you think so? She is so pretty, and so sweet and timid.”
“I wish all the same she had been older, more the sort of person I
expected,” observed Mr. Fawcett. “She will be always with you now,
Cicely, and it won’t be half so comfortable.”
“What would you have done if I had had a young sister?” asked
Cicely.
“I should have got accustomed to her and should have known her
always. A stranger coming is quite different. And one must be civil to
her, as she is a young lady,” grumbled Mr. Fawcett.
“And so very pretty,” added Cicely mischievously, but she did not
succeed in making her cousin smile.
“It’s not comfortable,” he repeated.
“My dear Trevor, you are very cross. I assure you Geneviève is
the last person to interfere with your comfort. She is only too timid
and retiring,” remonstrated Cicely.
Mr. Fawcett did not reply. He sat silent for a minute or two,
seemingly a very little less good-humoured than his wont. Then
suddenly he looked up.
“By the bye, Cicely,” he said, “who was that fellow that was here
last night? I have never seen him before, have I?”
Something in his words made Miss. Methvyn’s tone, as she
replied, hardly as equable as usual.
“It was Mr. Guildford, the doctor from Sothernbay,” she answered
a little coldly. “He is coming over every week now to see my father,
as Dr. Farmer has gone.”
“Oh! yes, I remember. A very good thing for him, I dare say. It’s
not often a Sothernbay surgeon gets such a chance,” said Mr.
Fawcett carelessly.
Miss Methvyn’s face flushed slightly.
“I don’t think you—I wish you wouldn’t speak of Mr. Guildford in
that way, Trevor,” she said gently. “He isn’t that sort of man. Don’t
you remember my telling you how kind he was when Charlie died?—
coming at once and staying so long, though he was a perfect
stranger. I believe he is a very clever man, and a very kind-hearted
one too. Indeed I don’t see how a doctor can be a really good one if
he is always thinking about his own advancement more than of
anything else.”
“It’s the way of the world unfortunately, for doctors and everybody
to do so,” said Mr. Fawcett. “But I didn’t mean to say anything
against your doctor, Cicely. I hadn’t the least idea who he was last
night. But I’ll tell you what,” he added, after a little pause, as a bright
idea suddenly struck him, “if you don’t take care you’ll have this
disinterested young man falling in love with your pretty cousin,
Cicely, if you let him come about in this tame-cat way.”
Cicely’s face flushed again.
“I wish you would not say those things, Trevor. It is disagreeable;
Mr. Guildford is quite a different man from what you fancy. I am quite
sure his head is full of much more important matters than falling in
love. He is an exceedingly clever and learned man.”
“And do ‘exceedingly clever and learned men’ never fall in love?”
asked Mr. Fawcett. “It is to be hoped you don’t scorn the idea of
exceedingly clever and learned women being guilty of such a
weakness.”
His tone was light and bantering, but to Cicely’s quick ears a slight
and very unusual bitterness was discernible through the raillery. She
looked sorry.
“I don’t believe you care a bit for me, Cicely,” said Trevor, before
she had made up her mind what to say.
She looked up in his face with her clear kind eyes. “Don’t say that,
Trevor,” she said. “How could I not care for you? Have we not been
companions in everything almost longer than I can remember? I
cannot recall any part of my life without finding you in it. Dear Trevor,
don’t speak so. And please don’t laugh at me and call me clever and
learned. I am neither, only things have made me graver and quieter
than other girls.”
Mr. Fawcett was standing beside her now. He stooped and kissed
her on the forehead.
“I didn’t mean to vex you, Cicely,” he said.
Cicely smiled and peace was made. But she owned to herself that
Trevor had not been quite as kindly and good-natured as usual in his
remarks this morning.
Then the luncheon-gong sounded, and Mrs. Methvyn and
Geneviève came into the room.
“Geneviève,” said her aunt, as they were all passing through the
hall, on their way to the dining-room, “Is your address at Hivèritz, 21,
or 31, Rue de la Croix? I always forget. I have just been writing to
your mother.”
“31, Rue de la Croix blanche, dear aunt,” said Geneviève,
wondering in her own mind if Mr. Fawcett would perhaps go a walk
with Cicely and her in the afternoon, and wishing that she had
changed her dress before luncheon.
CHAPTER VII.
SOME ARE WISE, SOME OTHERWISE.

“. . . à quoi bon avoir une jolie figure et une délicieuse toilette, si on ne les montre
pas?”
Les Misérables.

THE next day was Sunday. A Sunday beautiful enough to make


Cicely’s wish that she could spend it altogether in the woods seem
excusable. It was better than “a perfect day;” it was a day brimming
over with promise of better things yet to come, a day to infuse one
with vague, delicious hopefulness, to set one in tune with oneself,
and, as a natural consequence of such a happy state of things, with
everybody else as well.
Mrs. Methvyn could not go to church in the morning, for her
husband had had a restless night, and as was often the case,
objected to her leaving him, so the two girls set off alone. It was
Geneviève’s first Sunday in England. She seemed quiet and
preoccupied, but Cicely was bright and animated.
“Isn’t it beautiful, Geneviève?” said Cicely, stopping for a moment
and gazing up through the thick network of leaves to the brilliant blue
beyond. “Don’t you like to see that green light among the trees? It
looks so fresh and cool up there, I think I should like to be a squirrel.”
“A what?” said Geneviève, looking puzzled.
“A squirrel—écureuil, isn’t it, in French? Those dear little
creatures with great bushy tails,” said Cicely.
“Oh!” said Geneviève, enlightened, but not interested. But Cicely
was in a talkative mood, and was not to be easily discouraged.
“Did you never play at fancying what animal you would like to be
when you were a little girl?” she asked. “I thought all children did.”
“I don’t think we ever did,” said Geneviève. “I don’t remember. I
was not very happy when I was a little girl. I was not like you, Cicely,
the only child; there were so many children, and mamma always
busy. Ah! no,” with a slight shrug of her shoulders, “I am glad to be
no longer a child.”
“What a pity!” exclaimed Cicely involuntarily. “I mean,” she went
on, softening her tone, “I am so sorry for any one that has not a
happy remembrance of childhood. I should have fancied you had
had such a happy childhood, Geneviève. Of course I was very
happy, and, I suspect, a good deal indulged, but I often wished for
companions near me in age. My sister Amiel, you know, is seven
years older than I, and Trevor Fawcett, my other companion, is five
years older than I am. And you had brothers and sisters not much
younger than yourself.”
“Brothers,” corrected Geneviève. “Eudoxie is eight years younger.
But my brothers amused themselves always without me; they were
several. One brother would be different; one brother might have
been to me such as Mr. Fawcett was to you.”
Her tone was more animated now. But Cicely did not seem to
care to pursue the subject further.
“Yes,” she said, “perhaps your having several brothers made it
different,” and then they walked on in silence for a few minutes.
It was very quiet in the woods: such sounds as there were, came
clear and crisp; it was too early in the season yet for the rich, all-
pervading hum of full summer life; it seemed the morning of the year
as well as of the day.
“Could you tell it was Sunday without knowing, Geneviève?” said
Cicely suddenly.
Geneviève looked at her with again a puzzled expression on her
face; it seemed to her that her sensible cousin said very silly things
sometimes. Cicely appeared to read her thoughts. She smiled, as
she went on speaking.
“That was another of my fancies when I was little,” she said. “I
always thought the birds and the leaves and the insects and
everything spoke in hushed tones on Sunday. And a rainy Sunday
upset all my theories terribly! Do you hear the brook, Geneviève?
When it is in good spirits, that is to say, pretty full, we can hear it a
long way off. Ah! yes; there it is.”
She stood still, her head bent slightly forward as she listened, her
lips parted, her soft eyes bright with eagerness. And from far away
came the tinkling murmur she loved so well to hear.
“It is not very full today,” she said at last. “Sometimes it has quite
a rushing sound, as if a crowd of fairies were going by in a great
bustle, but to-day it sounds soft and sleepy. But we shall be late. The
wind is not the right way for us to hear the bell. Don’t you think it is
rather difficult to get to church at all when the road lies through a
wood like this, Geneviève?”
“It is very pretty,” said Geneviève; “it would be charming to have a
picnic here, Cicely.”
The idea roused her to something like enthusiasm, and made her
temporarily forget the fears for the well-being of her pretty lavender
muslin, which had considerably interfered with her enjoyment of the
walk.
“Do you like picnics?” said Cicely.
“But yes, certainly I like them,” replied Geneviève; “that is to say,
when there are plenty of agreeable people. At Hivèritz the picnics
are charming. Once, Madame Rousille, the mother of one of my
school companions, invited me to one that she gave when her eldest
daughter was married. Ah, it was charming! But I was only fifteen
then,” she added with a sigh.
“Why do you sigh, Geneviève?” asked Cicely.
“I was thinking how few pleasures I have had compared with
Stéphanie Rousille,” said Geneviève naïvely; “her parents are so
rich, they have a so beautiful house. You do not know what it is to be
poor, my cousin.”
“No,” said Cicely, “I don’t; but I don’t think I should dread being
poor so very much.”
“That is because you do not know,” replied her cousin sagely; and
Cicely, owning to herself that the remark might be true, did not
contradict her. She felt the less inclined to discuss the point that a
certain selfishness in Geneviève’s allusions to her life at home
diminished the sympathy she had felt anxious to express.
They were in good time at church, after all; they were almost the
first-comers, and, considerably to Geneviève’s disappointment, when
she followed her cousin to the Greystone pew, she found that it was
in an extreme corner of the church, commanding no view of the rest
of the congregation. It was very vexatious; she had set her heart on
observing the Fawcett family, on being—not impossibly—observed
and recognized by them, and, full of these hopes, she had put on her
very best bonnet—for nothing, as it turned out, but a walk with Cicely
through the woods, and the feeble admiration of a row of old women
in poke bonnets and scarlet cloaks.
It was not an impressive or picturesque little church inside by any
means, though outside, its ivy-grown old walls looked respectably
venerable, if nothing more. It had never, however, occurred to Cicely
Methvyn to remark its ugliness; it had been familiar to her since
earliest childhood, the high dark pews, the top-heavy pulpit, and
sentry-box reading-desk, even the very stains on the plaster had
been a part of Sunday to her ever since she could remember, and
had they been suddenly removed, their absence would have pained
her, for, like most sensitive children, she shrank curiously from
change. But on this particular Sunday, the bareness and general
unattractiveness of the little building struck her as they had never
done before; it had been shut up for several weeks during the
clerical interregnum, and the superiority of Haverstock church had
unconsciously impressed her; then, too, the unusual brightness and
radiance of the morning outside rendered the contrast with the chill
dinginess of the drab-coloured walls the more striking. Cicely could
not restrain a passing feeling of pity for the new clergyman.
“How ugly he will think it, especially if he has been accustomed to
any of those beautiful new churches,” she thought to herself,
recalling what she had heard of Mr. Hayle, and she watched with
some interest for his appearance.
He was not the least like what she had expected; he was a small,
boyish-looking man—boyish-looking in a way which advancing years
would not affect. He read well, and without hesitation, and his voice,
though low, was not weak; the only nervousness he betrayed was at
the beginning of his sermon, but he quickly recovered his self-
possession as he went on. There was nothing remarkable about the
sermon; it was not in itself strikingly original, nor expressed in
particularly good English, yet Miss Methvyn found herself compelled
to listen to it with attention, and though it contained quite the average
amount of faulty logic and sweeping denunciation, it failed to irritate
or even to annoy her. The gentleness and earnestness of the
preacher’s manner disarmed her latent antagonism, the matter-of-
fact conviction with which he uttered such of the dogmas of his
school as his subject trenched upon, impressed her, in spite of
herself, while the evident goodness of the man, the single-minded
restrained fervour with which he spoke, aroused her admiration.
Once or twice during the service, Cicely glanced at her cousin in
some curiosity as to how she was affected by this, her first
experience of English church-going. Geneviève’s face looked sad;
once, it seemed to Cicely, its expression was troubled and
bewildered as well. “Poor girl!” she thought, “I wonder if it all seems
very strange to her. I dare say she is thinking about her Sundays at
home, when her own father is the preacher.”
Her pity was misplaced; at that moment, home and friends,
Monsieur Casalis and his sermons, were far enough from
Geneviève’s thoughts. She was looking sad, because there was no
Mr. Fawcett to be seen to admire the effect of her pretty bonnet; the
distressed expression arose from the furtive efforts she made from
time to time to obtain a view of that part of the church behind where
she sat, in hopes of catching sight of the tall, fair-haired figure of the
young milord.
Coming out of church, Miss Methvyn was waylaid by one of the
scarlet cloaks with a string of inquiries and confidences; Geneviève
was not partial to poor old women, and was just now too cross and
disappointed to simulate an interest she did not feel, so she walked
on slowly across the churchyard and a little way down the road by no
means in a happy or hopeful frame of mind. This was her first
Sunday in England, and already she was half inclined to wish herself
back at Hivèritz again; she was beginning to think life at the Abbey
triste in the extreme, and to feel provoked with her placid cousin’s
content therewith. She certainly liked the sensation of ease and
plenty, the comforts and luxuries and absence of the incessant small
economies of her home, but this measure of enjoyment was far from
being all that she had looked for in her new circumstances; she
wanted to be féted and admired and amused; she wanted to see
something of English society; she wanted Mr. Fawcett to fall
desperately in love with her, and he had not even been at church.
Suddenly there came a quick step behind her,—in her
preoccupation of mind she had wandered further than she had
imagined; now she turned round with a start at the sound of her own
name, and found herself face to face with Mr. Fawcett.
“Miss Casalis,” he exclaimed, “where in the world are you going?
Cicely sent me after you, and it is a very hot day for May, let me
remind you, and I haven’t a parasol.”
She looked up into his laughing face, all the brightness back
again in her own.
“I am so sorry, so very sorry,” she said with her soft accent and
pretty stress upon the r’s, “so sorry to have troubled you; I thought
not of it.”
“By George!” thought the young man, as he let his eyes rest for a
moment on the lovely blushing face, “she is frightfully pretty.”
Aloud he only made some little joking speech about his perfect
readiness to run all the way to Haverstock in her service if she
chose. “For this is the Haverstock Road you were posting along at
such a rate,” he explained.
A foolish commonplace little speech, but it made Geneviève blush
all the more; she had heard so much of the formality and the
stiffness of Englishmen, that she was ready to attach absurdly
exaggerated importance to the most ordinary little bit of gallantry,
and to treasure up in her memory, as fraught with meaning, idle
words forgotten by the speaker as soon as uttered.
“Where then is my cousin?” she said, turning as if to retrace her
steps, but Mr. Fawcett stopped her.
“Cicely will meet us across the field,” he said; “there is a stile a
few steps further on. You are not going home through the woods
again, Miss Casalis, you are coming back to Lingthurst with me to
luncheon; my mother ordered me to bring you and Cicely back—she
has got a cold or a headache or something, and wants cheering—
and so I came to church on purpose to fetch you. Wasn’t it good of
me?”
He spoke in his usual half-bantering tone, and Geneviève hardly
understood how much was fun, and how much earnest. So she said
nothing, but looked up again and smiled; then a thought struck her.
“Did Cicely say I too should go to your—to Miladi Fawcett’s house
to luncheon?” she inquired; “might it not be better that I should return
to Greystone to tell my aunt?”
“Walk all the way there alone?” exclaimed Mr. Fawcett. “Certainly
not. Of course you must come to Lingthurst, too. Cicely sent word
home by Mrs. Moore. It will be all right. Cicely often comes back with
us on Sundays. And didn’t I tell you, Miss Casalis, that I came to
church on purpose?”
Geneviève made no more objections.
“I knew not that you were at church,” she said; “I could not see
you.”
“Did you look for me?” said Mr. Fawcett lightly.
To his surprise Geneviève grew scarlet, and made no reply. He
felt vexed with himself for annoying her.
“French girls are brought up so primly,” he reflected. “I suspect
she thinks my manners very free and easy, poor little soul. How
sensitive she is!”
There was increased gentleness in his tone when next he spoke.
“We sit up in the gallery,” he said; “we have a sort of little room up
there all to ourselves. So I saw you, Miss Casalis, though you didn’t
see me.”
Geneviève felt that the new bonnet and lavender muslin had not
been donned in vain.
“There is Cicely,” continued Mr. Fawcett, “as happy as a king,
chatting to her old woman. Another stile, Miss Casalis, that’s right;
you are as light as a feather.”
Geneviève laughed merrily; the sound of the cheerful voices
reached Cicely in front; she stopped, said good-bye to her old friend,
and walked back slowly to meet her cousins.
“How much brighter Geneviève looks now,” she thought. “I
wonder if it is really true that French people are so changeable.
Those commonplace sayings must have had truth in them originally,
though one’s inclination is to doubt them. But, certainly, Geneviève is
not like an English girl; she is simpler and less sophisticated; and yet
—”
Geneviève met her with an apology—an apology disproportionate
to the occasion, it seemed to Cicely. She said so.
“Why, Geneviève, you talk as if I were an ogress,” she exclaimed.
“Why should I be so vexed with you for walking on a little way? I
should rather, if we are to be on such terms, apologize to you for
staying behind to talk to old Mrs. Perkins.”.
A little hurt feeling was perceptible in her tone. Geneviève’s face
assumed an expression of great distress, and her eyes grew dewy.
She fell a few steps behind without speaking. Mr. Fawcett walked on
beside Cicely. He looked annoyed.
“Are you put out about anything this morning, Cicely? You don’t
seem like yourself,” he remarked.
Miss Methvyn looked up quickly. “You mean that I spoke crossly
to Geneviève,” she said. “I didn’t mean it. But it is a little
disappointing, Trevor; I can’t get her to understand me. She seems
to forget that I am a girl like herself, and she seems in awe of me in a
way that hurts me. I wish she were more frank.”
“More frank,” repeated Trevor; “upon my word, Cicely, you are
difficult to please. If you had wished the poor little soul were a little
more dignified, a degree more self-confident, I could understand you.
It is no wonder she is in awe of you, as you say. You must throw off
some of your reserve if you want to win her confidence.”
“I did not know you thought me reserved, Trevor,” said Cicely
sadly. And then, before he had time to answer, she turned back to
Geneviève. “Are you tired, dear?” she said kindly. “I am very
thoughtless in forgetting you are not accustomed to such long walks
as I.”
“I am not tired, thank you. That is to say, only the least in the
world,” said Geneviève, in a sweet but subdued tone. But Cicely was
not discouraged; she talked on persistently, drawing her cousin into
the conversation, till at last Geneviève unconsciously forgot her role
of pretty suffering saint, and Trevor his very rare fit of annoyance,
and they were all three the best of friends again.
“And how do you like Mr. Hayle, Cicely?” asked Mr. Fawcett when
there fell a little pause in the conversation.
“I don’t know,” she replied doubtfully. “I am sure he is a good man,
and there is something in his manner that interests one, though I
suspect I should disagree with him on almost every subject.”
Mr. Fawcett began to laugh.
“That speech is so like you, Cis,” he said.
“How?” said Cicely; but she laughed too.
“Oh! I can’t tell you,” he replied; “it was just like you, I can’t explain
why. I saw that you were interested. I never saw you so attentive
before. I shall be getting jeal—”
“Trevor,” exclaimed Cicely remonstratingly. The half word had
caught Geneviève’s quick ears. She looked up with a sudden
change of expression, and something in her face struck Cicely
curiously; but in a moment the look had died out again, for
Geneviève imagined that she saw before her the reason of Cicely’s
exclamation. A few steps in front of them, in the lane they had just
entered, a sudden turn showed the figure of the young clergyman.
He was walking very fast, but Mr. Fawcett ran forward and overtook
him.
“I looked for you after church,” he was saying to Mr. Hayle when
the cousins came up, “but you had disappeared. My mother is
expecting you at luncheon, you know.”
“At dinner, thank you,” replied Mr. Hayle, “I shall be very happy to
dine with you, but I never take luncheon.”
“Where are you off to, then, in such a hurry?” asked Mr. Fawcett;
“but I am forgetting,” he went on, “that you have not met Miss
Methvyn before; Cicely, may I introduce Mr. Hayle to you?”
The clergyman bowed, growing rather red as he did so. On nearer
view he looked even more boyish than at a little distance, and it was
not difficult to see that he was unaccustomed to society.
“I am afraid Lingthurst church must strike you unpleasantly,” said
Cicely, anxious to say something to set him at his ease. “I don’t think
it ever occurred to me before how very ugly it is. It looked somehow,
extra chilly and gloomy this morning. I even felt grateful to the row of
old Dame Durdens in their red cloaks.”
“Yes,” said Mr. Hayle calmly, “I think it is the ugliest church, for its
size, that I ever saw. I am glad you think it ugly, Miss Methvyn, for I
hope you may help me to do what can be done towards improving
it.”
Cicely looked a little startled.
“You must ask Lady Frederica in the first place,” she said.
“Lingthurst isn’t our church, Mr. Hayle; we only go there because it is
so much nearer than Haverstock.”
“And because it is so much nicer to walk through the woods than
to drive along the dusty high-road,” observed Mr. Fawcett quietly.
“Trevor,” said Miss Methvyn, her face flushing a little.
Geneviève began to laugh, but Mr. Hayle looked graver than
before. He disliked the faintest suspicion of a joke on certain
subjects, and he saw that Miss Methvyn seemed annoyed. He
turned to her, completely ignoring Mr. Fawcett’s remark.
“I am afraid there is not very much that can be done,” he said. “At
the best I do not hope for much at present.”
Then they talked about other things for a few minutes till their
ways separated, Mr. Hayle turning off in the direction of a small
hamlet about a mile away.
“This is my best way to Notcotts, is it not?” he inquired as he said
good-bye, and Mr. Fawcett went a few steps down the lane with him
to make his instructions more clear.
“What in the world is he going to Notcotts for?” Trevor exclaimed
as he rejoined the two girls.
“To see some sick person, no doubt,” said Cicely.
Mr. Fawcett gave a species of grunt. “I think he’s a prig,” he
announced, at which Cicely smiled, and Geneviève, who had not the
slightest idea what he meant, smiled too.
But now they were entering Lingthurst Park, and Miss Casalis’s
whole attention was absorbed in looking about her. It was a much
larger and grander place than Greystone, but neither as picturesque
nor as homelike. It was newer, in every sense of the word, for Sir
Thomas, the grandson of the first baronet, was but the second of his
family who had owned land in Sothernshire, and his position on first
succeeding to Lingthurst was not so assured as not to be
strengthened by his marriage with Lady Frederica St. Ives, one of
the four remaining unmarried daughters of an Irish earl of long
descent and small possessions. Lady Frederica was a cousin on the
mother’s side of Colonel Methvyn; she was not very young, and not
very wise; she was very poor, and had been very pretty; she was still
pleasing-looking, amiable, gentle, and perfectly absorbed in her
immediate interests. So, though Sir Thomas, who might have been a
usefully clever man, had contented himself with taking prizes for fat
oxen and occasional appearances on the board, and though Lady
Frederica’s silliness did not diminish with her years, the Fawcett
household was looked upon as a happy and prosperous one, and
there were not many mothers in Sothernshire who would have been
other than delighted to welcome young Trevor as a son-in-law. And
of this fact the person chiefly concerned was perfectly well aware.
There was, perhaps, but one girl of his acquaintance whose feelings
to him he believed to be completely unaffected by his present
position or future prospects, and this girl was his cousin Cicely—
Cicely, whom he had been trusted to hold in his little arms when he
himself was a tiny lad, whose first toddling steps he had proudly
guided—sweet Cicely, who was to be his wife “some day.”
But of nearly all that concerned Trevor Fawcett, Geneviève was in
ignorance. She only knew that he was rich and handsome and
agreeable; very nearly, if not quite, fulfilling the conditions she had
prescribed to herself as requisite for the hero of her romance. And
the sight of his home went far to confirm her predilections.
Everywhere at Lingthurst signs of wealth were scattered by a
profuse but not vulgar hand. Everything was perfect of its kind, and
perfectly well kept. There were no weeds in the borders, no grass on
the paths, which was more than could be said for all the byways and
corners of the queer, rambling, old garden at Greystone; the fruit and
vegetables were always the finest and earliest of the season; the
Lingthurst “glass” was the boast of the country-side. Indoors it was
the same; carpets, curtains, sofas, chairs and tables of the best
make and material; huge plate-glass windows, beautiful inlaid
fireplaces, ormolu, marqueterie, Sèvres and Dresden everywhere.
And all, to do the owners or their advisers justice, in unexceptionably
good taste. There was no over-crowding, no heterogeneous mixture
of colour, no obtrusive “gold.” But there were no quaint cloister
passages like those at the Abbey, no latticed casements or deep
window seats; no many-cornered, oak wainscoted room with the ivy
leaves, peeping in at the windows, like the old library at Greystone.
And when Cicely Methvyn, as she could not but do sometimes,
glanced forward at her future life as mistress of this rich domain.
When she thought of the days that must come, the days when her
free, unfettered, girl life would be a thing of the past; when father and
mother, already grey haired and ageing, would be further from their
darling than the few miles which separated Greystone from
Lingthurst,—when she looked forward to these things, sometimes
Cicely’s heart failed her; why, she knew not. But a vague wish would
arise that Trevor had been her brother; that he, not she, were her
father’s heir. “If I could have looked forward to living on always at
Greystone with Trevor, just as we are now!” she would say to herself;
“I dread changes. I could have been happy never to have been
married. Only, if Trevor had been my brother, he would have married
—perhaps he would have married some one like Geneviève.”
This last thought came into her head suddenly, as they were all
sitting at luncheon this Sunday in the grand Lingthurst dining-room,
and though she smiled at herself for speculating on impossibilities,
the picture of Geneviève as Trevor’s wife recurred persistently to her
imagination. The pastor’s daughter was looking so bright and so very
pretty, she seemed so wonderfully at home among the luxuries and
splendours of Lingthurst, that Cicely found it difficult to realise the
novelty and strangeness of the girl’s position. They all made so
much of her; Sir Thomas was evidently struck by her beauty, and
Lady Frederica, who prided herself a good deal on her “foreign
travels,” and smattering of French and Italian, kept up a constant,
gentle chatter about Hivèritz and Paris, and the charms of
continental life, as if Geneviève were a little princess travelling
incognita. And Geneviève sat on Sir Thomas’s right hand, with Mr.
Fawcett beside her, and smiled and blushed and talked her pretty
broken English; all with the most perfect propriety, but with a curious,
indefinable taking it all as a matter of course in her manner, which
surprised Cicely—surprised and puzzled her, and gave her again the
uneasy sensation of not understanding her cousin, of having been
mistaken in the estimate she had formed of her character. And
gradually the feeling of bewilderment affected Cicely’s manner. She
grew graver and more silent than usual, and felt provoked with
herself for being so, especially when Sir Thomas’s inquiry if she had
a headache, drew everybody’s attention to her.
“Oh! no, thank you, I am perfectly well,” she answered. But
somehow the words sounded uneasy and constrained, and she felt
glad when Lady Frederica proposed that they should stroll through
the gardens before getting ready for afternoon church.
Sir Thomas’s gout was bad in one foot, and his wife was
supposed to be suffering from influenza, so there were only Mr.
Fawcett and Miss Winter to accompany the two girls in their ramble.
And Geneviève being the stranger, it naturally came to pass that Mr.
Fawcett appointed himself her guide to the points of interest about
the grounds. So Cicely was left behind with Miss Winter, and for
some minutes the two walked on in silence.
Miss Winter was fussy, but truly kind. She had known Cicely since
she was a little girl, and loved her dearly. And, somehow, the order of
things to-day was hardly to her liking. She could not bear to see the
girl so silent and abstracted.
“You are not well, my dear Miss Methvyn,” she exclaimed at last.
“I am perfectly certain you are over-tired, or anxious, or something.”
Cicely started. “No, indeed, I am not,” she replied hastily, “I am
quite well, I assure you, Miss Winter. I am only very rude and selfish
—I am a little dull, perhaps,” she added hesitatingly, “but it is very
silly of me.”
She stifled a little sigh—she could not tell Miss Winter that for, as
far as she could remember, the first time in her life, Trevor had to-
day spoken unkindly and hurtingly to her.
“Everybody is dull sometimes,” said Miss Winter consolingly.
“Are you?” said Cicely. Then it struck her the question was a
thoughtless one, and she looked up quickly to see if Miss Winter felt
it to be such. “I beg your pardon,” she added hurriedly.
But there was no annoyance visible in the old maid’s kindly face.
A face that had once been young and round and pretty, perhaps,
thought Cicely with a sort of dreamy pity as she looked at it,—a face
that still lighted up cheerily at small enough provocation.
“Why should you beg my pardon, my dear?” she exclaimed. “Of
course, I am dull sometimes, but I try not to give way to it. You know,
my dear, it is part of the business of my life to be cheerful.”
Poor Miss Winter! Cicely pitied her more than ever she had done
before. But the little diversion of thought had been salutary.
They drove to afternoon church in the Lingthurst brougham, and
when the service was over Miss Methvyn’s pony carriage was
waiting for them. So Cicely had no more talk with Trevor alone. But
as he was putting the reins in her hand, at the church door, he
whispered, “You didn’t think me cross to-day; did you, dear? I am
very sorry if I seemed so.”
A grateful glance was all the reply she had time for, but she drove
home with a lighter heart.
And, “Ah! my cousin, what a pleasant day we have had!”
exclaimed Geneviève. “La famille Fawcett est vraiment charmante;
and, ah!” she added ecstatically, “quelle belle maison, que de jolies
choses! Ah! que je voudrais étre riche!”
“Geneviève!” exclaimed Cicely, in a tone of some remonstrance.
But Geneviève only laughed. Then sobering down again, she
repeated her speech of the morning. “Ah! Cécile,” she said, “you
don’t know what it is to be poor.”
CHAPTER VIII.

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