Old and new

Tillman Crane's new focus on old photography techniques

by Leon Nigrosh

ECHOES OF HISTORY: PHOTOGRAPHS BY TILLMAN CRANE at the George C. Gordon Library, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, through June 15.

It's like two shows in one. The current exhibit at WPI's Gordon Library displays a photograph that has been reproduced in eight distinct historical-photo-printing techniques. Twenty one other images, also executed in several of these same methods, are examples of recent work by photographer/ teacher Tillman Crane.

Crane, who worked as a photojournalist in Tennessee, began in the early 1980s to carve out a niche for his personal photography using a large format 8x10 camera. Shortly after his return to Maine, in 1987, he became intrigued with early photography processes and started to incorporate them into both his classroom and personal efforts. The images on the library walls serve as a tour of Crane's experiments.

He chose an original glass-plate negative, taken by Rudolph H. Cassens in 1895, of Sunday-go-to-meeting ladies, entering a Maine stagecoach and then made 16-inch by 20-inch contact prints in each of the most popular printing methods from photography's early days. Crane thoughtfully supplies a careful explanation of how each image was reproduced. Knowing that the image made by the albumen process -- which incorporates real egg whites in the emulsion -- may help explain why the finished picture is yellowish. But then, so is the print, which was produced by using the salted-paper technique.

Through Crane's repetitive reproduction of the same picture, we do experience the great difference in emotional impact of the seemingly mundane scene as presented in the characteristically dark blue cyanotype version and as shown by the warm sepia tones of the Vandyke technique. To round out the series, he reproduced the final print with the silver gelatin technique, today's standard photoprinting method. This more familiar technique brings out the nuances and depth of field etched onto the old glass plate, which are otherwise less noticeable in prints done with the earlier printing processes.

After thoroughly absorbing this technical lesson, one can easily see how Crane's own photography has been influenced. Not only does his choice of printing technique affect the finished image, but it appears to impel his thematic style and arrangement of his subject matter. In his platinotype Gift of the Universe, produced through the use of platinum and palladium salts, Crane uses the classic artifice of softened blacks to highlight the white blond toddler, pondering a tiny egg while floating in a sea of black drapery.

A Vandyke sepia-toned picture, Still Life with Glass and Rose, harks back to an earlier time with its arrangement of elements and textures. Even the objects themselves, the single rose, pince-nez glasses, antique metal cigarette case, and leather pouch, bring a note of Romanticism to the image. The trend continues with Sarah in Lavender, only this time Crane tints a cyanotype with tannic acid to create a washed gray image reminiscent of Matthew Brady's Civil War photos. The fact that the model is in a classic off-camera glance and cloaked in a coarse burlap coat increases the photo's 19th-century-like aura.

Crane also shows an assortment of architectural photos. In each of these, he employs the various processes to enhance the historic qualities of the actual buildings. Cyanotypes of typical "gingerbread" cottages in Oak Bluffs stir memories of earlier summer escapes. Gold-toned, salted-paper images of the Tunnel to the Train, New Haven and 7 a.m., 30th Street Station transport us back to the heady art deco days when trains were equated with power and freedom.

Crane has just recently moved to Utah. It is hoped that while there, he will continue to search for more new old images and continue to create photographs that express the roots of photography as well as the roots of America.

WPI's Gordon Library is open Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.