Frank Hurley’s Darkroom and Interesting Poisons in Early C20th Photography

Here is an example of a Paget Screen (the underpinning colour grid that enabled the reproduction of colour in the Paget Process):

Paget Screen, 1913

Paget Screen, 1913

Here we see typically soft-focus gentle colour produced in this Paget Process portrait of some of the AAE members whilst en route at Macquarie Island (can any of our readers identify them?):

AAE Members, Macquarie Island. Paget Process photo by Frank Hurley, 1913.

AAE Members, Macquarie Island. Paget Process photo by Frank Hurley, 1913.

In these days of Digital cameras, we tend to forget about the exquisitely complicated chemical processes of ‘analogue’ photography – especially those processes superseded by later developments during the Twentieth Century. We also often fail to appreciate the state of refinement that chemical and multiplate photography had attained – Hurley’s images of Antarctica show enormous amounts of detail only now being revealed by high-resolution digital scanning of the originals, enabling a kind of forensic visual history to be developed.

Hurley’s Darkroom is an absolute goldmine of information – it is probably one of the only extant early twentieth-century darkrooms that remotely resembles its operating state, complete with chemicals, anywhere in the world today – truly a piece of chemical-industrial history that has been frozen in time. Unique.

In this darkroom he developed and explored the first ever colour, stereoscopic and high-resolution images of East Antarctica – a unique visual record of the environment at that time.

It is an object lesson in this history – in this tiny room (1.45m square) he used a wide range of technically sophisticated processes that ranged across autochrome celluloid film (very early colour film); Paget process plates (complicated multi-plate raster colour images based upon a primary RGB or perhaps secondary OGV colour model); stereoscopic glass plates; cinematograph film and standard black and white glass plates.

The Mitchell Library (Sydney) supplies the following information about Paget and Autochrome processes:

“Early colour processes were based on introducing minute colour filters into a black and white emulsion. For instance the Autochrome system used minute potato starch grains, one third dyed red-orange, green and violet on a glass plate. Red light would pass through a red starch grain and give a black dot on the negative. Reverse processing would then produce a clear spot. When the glass plate was held up to the light, a red spot would be seen, corresponding to the original light. Several colour screen processes, using machine ruled lines on the emulsion, were introduced before WWI. Geoffrey Whitfield of London devised a system in which the screen was produced on a plate first dyed red. The surface was covered with parallel lines printed in a water resistant material and the plate bleached. The clear spaces between were dyed green and a second pattern of cross resist lnes was printed, followed by a second bleach. The clear spaces remaining were dyed blue, giving a pattern of two blue squares to each red and green square. The elements were about 1/300 inch in size..They were marketed as Paget Colour Plates in April 1913. Exposures were about 1/25th second at f4. It was possible to buy separate screens, which were sandwiched with the black and white plate before exposure and realigned after processing. Colour screen processes fell out of favour in the 1920s, when the price of screens became prohibitive. Naturally, enlargement of any colour screen process soon reveals the pattern of lines or, in the case of an Autochrome, the potato starch grains.”

The Paget process also sounds remarkably similar to the Finlay System, which casts some more light on the technique:

“The Finlay process differs from other screen-plates in that the emulsion is not coated upon the screen, but on a separate plate. Also the size of the colour elements is considerably larger. These two facts are inter-related. There are four separate units in the Finlay process, as against one in either the Lumiere or Dufay system. These four units are the taking screen, the negative plate, the positive plate and the viewing screen. It will be immediately appreciated that this involves a new factor—the necessity for maintaining accurate registration of each particle of the silver image behind its appropriate colour area. This can only be achieved so long as the screen is made to accurately standdardised dimensions on a “non-shrink” base, and so long as it is physically possible to manipulate the two components—silver image and colour-screen—into exact register.”

There were a wide range of both ‘additive’ and ‘subtractive’ colour photographic processes at the time – the Finlay Process (very similar to Paget); Dufay and Lumiere – which were quite different in nature as they use single rather than multiple screens.

It seems that Hurley was technically proficient with most of them. Considering he was only in his early 20s when he was on the AAE, that is quite remarkable.

Here is an example of a Paget Screen (the underpinning colour grid that enabled the reproduction of colour):

Here we see typically soft-focus gentle colour produced in this Paget Process portrait of some of the AAE members whilst en route at Macquarie Island (can any of our readers identify them?):

Uncovering aspects of these different processes has taken me quite a while as it is surprisingly difficult to track down information (I am very grateful to Mark Pharaoh and especially Clive Wilson-Roberts of the Mawson Collection, South Australian Museum) – but what seems even more obscure is the chemistry involved.

A perusal of Hurley’s Darkroom shelves reveal some interesting items – in the picture above on the left are two small bottles clearly labelled “Poison” – contents unknown; the centre holds two blue bottles labelled ‘Pyrogallic Acid” (E.Shering, Berlin); ‘Revelateur Concentre – Plaque Dioptichrome Dufay; ‘Rytol’ Universal Developer and a few others I will try and convince our Archaeologist Jody to have a look at. But what are they? I’ve wondered for quite some time (as I took this image two years ago) – not only at the chemistry, but also the how they were used in the photographic process.

The Merck Index provides the following interesting data about Pyrogallic Acid:

“Pyrogallol; 1,2,3-Benzenetriol; 1,2,3-trihydroxybenzene; pyrogallic acid. C6H6O3 …. White odorless crystals, mp131-133º. Becomes grayish on exposure to air and light. Poisonous! …Sublimes when slowly heated…Keep well closed and protected from light. Caution: Potential symptoms of overexposure are vomiting, hypothermia, fine tremors, weakness, muscle incoordination, diarrhea, loss of reflexes, coma, asphyxia. Direct contact may cause skin irritation and sensitization.

USE: Developer in photography; making colloidal solns of metals; as mordant for wool, staining leather, process engraving; manuf various dyes; dyeing furs, hair etc.; in analytical chemistry as a reagent for antimony and bismuth; as an active reducer for gold, silver and mercury salts; especially for absorption of oxygen in gas analysis.

THERAP CAT: Has been used as an antipsoriatic”

So we can conclude that he used it as a photographic developer – immediately below the bottles lie his developing trays and bath.

There is much more of interest to be revealed in this treasure trove left by Australia’s most famous photographer.

best,

Peter

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2 Responses

  1. Geoff Barker says:

    Hi Peter, I am doing some work on the Hurley Paget plates and was wondering if you came across any information about where the original negatives used to make the positive transparencies were held?

    • Peter Morse says:

      Hi Geoff, great news – it is an enduring interest of mine to explore the Paget process, so I am pleased to hear of your research. The only information I have on this came via Clive Wilson-Roberts who worked at the Mawson Collection, South Australian Museum. They are probably the best place to start.

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