Over Nine processes. Centuries in the making.

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Printing with light and chemistry on paper began in the mid-1800s. Every print from that era was, by necessity, made by hand. Most of these techniques were eventually displaced by faster, industrial methods. A small number of practitioners around the world kept them alive, refining them, combining them, and also building something entirely new. The artists in Confluence are among those practitioners.

Two broad approaches are represented in the exhibition.

In pigment-based printing, watercolour pigments are combined with light-sensitive emulsions and are applied to paper by hand. The image is built up in multiple layers, each applied and dried separately over several days. Gum Printing is the process used here.

In chemistry-driven processes, paper is hand-coated with light-sensitive compounds, then exposed and developed under the conditions each process demands. Kallitype, Salt Print, Cyanotype, FerroBlend, Lith, Silver Gelatin, Palladiotype and Lumen Printing each produce a distinct tonal quality and surface character. Several prints in this exhibition go further: toned with noble metals, hand-coloured, combined with other processes, or finished with embroidery.

In addition, these processes can be combined to meet an artist's aesthetic needs. Several prints in Confluence go beyond a single process. Gum over Cyanotype. Gum over Kallitype. Prints toned with noble metals. Works finished with hand-embroidery and hand-painting.

Each additional layer is a considered decision, chosen for what it brings to the image that no single process alone could produce, and each brings forth a unique quality of hand-craftedness. Learn more about how these prints are made.