Edward Curtis

I have two wonderful coffee table books of Edward Curtis photographs, "Edward S. Curtis: Visions of the First Americans" and Sites & Structures: The Architectual Photographs of Edward S. Curtis." I'm sure that I have several other books that contain reproductions of his work. Missing from those books is my favorite photograph which he took in 1904 of Navajo riders at Canyon de Chelly.


(This image is linked from the Library of Congress which is an amazing source.) What especially impressed me were his goldtone or orotype images. So, I wondered, how did he do it and more importantly, could it be reproduced?

So, armed with the power of Google, I spent a little over 2 hours (yeah, sure) searching and reading about Edward Curtis and the orotype. I thought that I would share some of the links that I found interesting. I started out looking through the Edward Curtis images stored on the Library of Congress web site and found an entire page devoted to him. I also found a related link at Northwestern University. A short description of Curtis and his work can also be found at www.edwardcurtis.com.

I had thought that this technique had died with it's creator, but apparently there are a few people still practicing variations of this art. Specifically, Curtis' technique involved placing a suspension of gold particles in banana oil sandwiched behind the glass positive (a print of the negative). Newer techniques either use a variant of this or gold leaf applied directly to the back of the positive glass plate. In my searches, I came across photographer Barabra Smith and her Auratones. She produces some amazing images with her technique. I also came across the photography of LA-based photographer Matthew Betcher at the Channel Four Contemporary Art Gallery web site. That web page has some good graphics concerning the orotype flow and some of his images in his series of the LA River. (I can't seem to locate a web site for Matthew Betcher, which is kind of a bummer, though I think he may be on Facebook.)

I'm pretty handy, but in my mind, I was thinking of Photoshop, and would it be a good effect to use on some of my B&W images. Would it be an effect that would only work on a print or would a screen image benefit from it's application? I have some photographs that were taken in Moab Utah several years ago that might benefit from such an effect. (It might also be an excellent excuse to head back out there and shoot some more photos.) How could it be done? I've read many articles by Photoshop experts that see some effect and attempt to reproduce it in that tool. I'm certainly no expert and I would spend a lot of time attempting, by eye. (Although, if an expert would like to attempt it, I certainly wouldn't stand in their way.) I'm a scientist, so I tend to favor a more analytical approach. I remembered an article on toning (thank goodness for Delicious) by Paul Butzi that describes a method of transferring a curves adjustment layer from a scan of the original. Since curves are just a transfer function it made a lot of sense. So, now I just need to find a book or image on the net with an adequate orototype.