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What are Gum Prints?

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The image below shows the corner of a gum print. The brush marks from the application of several coats of different layers of pigment can be seen. Prints can be mounted to hide or to reveal the brushed edges.

          


In brief: a mixture of pigment, gum and dichromate is painted on watercolour paper and left to dry, then exposed under a black and white negative by contact printing in sunlight (or using another ultraviolet source): prints are necessarily the same size as the negative - it is not possible to use an enlarger. The print is then washed in water to reveal an image. Usually several coats of pigment are required - entailing repeated painting, exposure and drying typically taking between a week and two weeks.

Gum printing is based on a process invented in 1839 by Scotsman Mungo Ponton and improved by Frenchman Victor Artigue among others. It was popular among the "Linked Ring" (a UK based group including Alfred Maskell and Robert Demachy) and the "photo-secessionists" (a US based group including Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz) from about 1890 to 1920. It is a very flexible procedure and can produce prints which are between watercolour paintings, woodblock prints and photographs.

I use large (8x10) and ultra-large (12x20) format in-camera negatives, modern and old (1870-1900) lenses, film and paper negatives, high quality watercolour papers, Winsor & Newton artists watercolour paints, and a lot of time to produce my prints.