Direct Carbon (Fresson)

Overview Object View Surface View Magnification Variations

Direct Carbon (Fresson) Overview

Common Use Dates: 1900 - 1939

Key Identifying Features

Mistaken For: Collotype, Photogravure

Process Family(s): Photographic

Description

Direct carbon is commonly known as the Fresson process. It is based on the light sensitivity of chromium salts suspended in a pigmented colloid (usually gelatin) known as a dichromated colloid.

The carbon process became commercially popular in the 1860s. A sheet of pigmented dichromated gelatin was printed in contact with a negative. During exposure the gelatin hardened in proportion to the amount of light it received. The unexposed gelatin remained soluble and was washed away resulting in an image. The process was cumbersome requiring the gelatin tissue to be transferred before development (single transfer). The mid-tone areas were partially hardened from the top down so that the soluble gelatin was under the hardened gelatin. Transferring the tissue to another support allowed the soluble gelatin to be on top so that a full tonal range could be obtained. Sometimes the tissue was transferred again (double transfer) so that the image would be right-reading. If the tissue was not transferred before development, the image would lack mid-tones resulting in a blocky, contrasty image.

Beginning in the 1890s several attempts were made to introduce direct carbon papers that did not require transfer but still gave good mid-tones. The first moderately successful paper was Charbon-Velor by Victor Artigue in 1893. The process was initially introduced by his father, Frederic, who died before perfecting the process. It was developed using a slurry of sawdust and water in which the friction of the sawdust helped remove the soluble gelatin. While it was available in three colors, black, blue, and sanguine, it was found that only the black gave good, though inconsistent, results. The specifications of the process remained proprietary. Thédore-Henri Fresson introduced Charbon-Satin paper around 1900 as an improvement to the Artique process. Fresson also did not take out patents on his process, but rather maintained a high level of secrecy surrounding the manufacturing details so that the process remains proprietary even today.

Fresson direct carbon paper was commercially available in Europe from about 1900 until WWII and in America from 1927 to 1939 through the distributor M. Alenius. The paper consisted of pre-coated, unsensitized paper that came with a packet of sawdust. It was available in several different colors, textures, base tints and paper weights. After WWII the Fresson family operated as an Atelier and only printed Fresson direct carbon for individual artists and continue to do so today.

Four color Fresson, called Quadrichromie Fresson, was introduced in 1951 by Pierre Fresson, the son of Thédore-Henri. It is an assembly processes in which cyan, yellow, magenta, and black images are layered to form a full color image.

Only the Fresson family held the proprietary secret to the process until 1966 when Pierre sold the secret to the Spanish photographer José Ortiz Echagüe with the stipulation that it not be called Fresson and that Ortiz not share the secret. Ortiz called his prints Carbondir. Evidently the rest of the Fresson family was not aware of this agreement until the 1970s when Louis Nadeau began negotiations with Ortiz or acquire the process. Nadeau acquired the process in 1979 just before Ortiz’s death and continues to operate in New Brunswick, Canada.