Primitive Photography

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Calotype Paper Negatives

This chapter concerns the making of paper negatives with contemporary materials. Techniques presented herein are adapted from French calotype procedures from the late 1840s to early 1850s and represent a streamlining of techniques pioneered by William Henry Fox Talbot in the late 1830s–early 1840s.¹ Two complementary procedures will be presented. The first is known as the wet-paper process. This procedure is intended to be used quickly, within a few minutes to a few hours after sensitizing. It allows for fine detail, relatively short exposure times with a wide aperture, and, therefore, portraiture. The second is known as the dry, waxed-paper process. Somewhat more grainy and less light-sensitive than the wet-paper ...