Marilyn Ticknor

Marilyn has been photographing most of her life, starting with Kodak brownie cameras.  Around 1989 she purchased her first 4 x 5 camera, a cumbersome affair with a very heavy case.  She currently has a small Arca Swiss that can be carried in a backpack.  Age demands that the photographic sites be very close to transportation.  She does a lot of tabletop photography.

Marilyn is a charter member of Imageworks.  She has experimented with a number of alternative photographic processes including cyanotype, platinum palladium, kallitype, zia type, Van Dyke and salt prints.  Unfortunately, negatives and final prints are not stored together.  It is the nature of alternative photographs that one cannot just look at the print and know what type they are unless they are labeled as such.  Marilyn also takes a lot of digital prints and produces digital negatives, so determining just which finished product is what requires finding the 4x5 negative—and nearly 40 years of 4x5 negatives makes for a real treasure hunt!

Why do alternative processing?  The art paper is coated with the photographic solution which soaks into the paper.  Therefore the photograph has more depth.  Also, especially with PT/PD the tonal range can be much wider.  Also, there is always “seeing if one can actually make their own photographic paper”.  It is a challenge.  Marilyn was just getting the hang of Polaroid lifts and transfers when the film disappeared.  Marilyn also hand colored a lot of black and white prints.  Unfortunately the best paper for hand coloring also disappeared.  Such is the life of a photographer/artist!

One of the best sources for alternative processes is Christopher James, “The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes”

 https://www.mgtphotography.ifp3.com