…which was not really that much of a surprise seeing I received a track-and-trace link via email of Marcel Schepers, a fellow analogue photographer, facebook friend and Rembrandt costumer. I thought he sent some films for us to develop, as that happens more than often. But, as the package arrived today, it didn’t seem like there were films in it. No, it was a book! A gift!
In 2012 I started a Lith Printing group on Facebook as up until then it didn’t exist. Back in those days (2009 I think) I started my own lith printing adventures. Seeing how choice of paper, developer, development etc. is of such great influence on the results achieved, I thought it to be interesting having a group where people could share their prints, along with all the details on how this specific image came to be.
So, not just posting photos of prints but also background info: type of paper used, chemistry, dilution, further tweaking and so on. As the availability of suitable papers for lith printing has changed over the coarse of years, it’s always nice to learn about new papers and possibilties and learn by and from other users and even distributors of chemistry and other materials. Tim Rudman & Wolfgang Moersch have been, of course amongst others, graciously sharing their knowledge.
Eventually life got too busy for me to properly maintain the group and Marcel kindly offered to take over from me. He still does this with great care, the group is very active and lot’s of good information is being shared. Back in the days I started an initiative to share lith prints for Christmas. Everyone could sign up and then each for pointed to one of the sign-ups to mail them an original lith print they have created themselves. This tradition was kept alive by Marcel but he noticed a decline in the last couple of years.
So, in November 2019 Marcel started an initiative to collect digital copies of lith prints, all printed in 2019, from those who wanted to contribute, and composed a book out of those lith prints. Today I received a copy of this book. This really moved me, after all this time, this is such a kind gesture, and I feel so happy to have founded this group and still find it to be thriving. Kudos to also the-good-things happening on Facebook. Heartwarming and it really made this day special today.
Kudos to Marcel for thinking of me as well as doing this in the first place. This is what keeps a community together; helping each other and sharing information keeps things alive and meaningful. ❤️
Photography Contrastique - Alternative Photographic Processes 