Black and Blue

[Bryce]

Looking for a little advice. I've spent the last few months working at the oldest living manufacturing plant in the area. Founded in 1893, it burned down in 1913 and was rebuilt immediately after that. So I work in the "new" shop.
Anyhow I've gotten access to the company archives, and there are tons of product photos from the very early days, as well as views of the plant and men working there. These were printed as cyanotypes rather than B+W's, presumably because the company had its own blueprinting facility.
I've been shooting images around the place and am near a point where I can start printing them. I normally just use B+W paper but somehow it seems appropriate to print these in the spirit of those old pictures in the archives.
I've never printed cyanotypes. My negatives are all small or medium format, so contact prints are not very natural for me.
So I'm asking really more than one question.
1) Should I print this series as B+W's like usual?
2) Should I teach myself to make print sized negs and make the series as proper cyanotypes?
3) Should I print them on B+W paper and blue tone them? I have done this before, its a piece of cake and the results look very much like cyanotypes- close enough that I'd be happy with the results visually.
Attached are 3 images- one from the company's archives, one of mine scanned as a B+W, and the same again but rendered in blue via Photoshop.
So what would you do? Are blue pictures of industrial ruins aesthetically pleasing to you? Is it a good idea to build on the old images or would I be best just to print them as B+W's?

 

[Dave Wilkinson]

Personally,-I think your pictures would look better and more appropriate with a sepia or selenium tone,-if you can!

Cheers, Dave

 

[MartinP]

I second Sitemistics point. Everything you are looking at is the property of the company, and what happens at the next stage depends on the contract between you and them. Of course, just because you make a contract doesn't mean any money has to change hands, but it avoids a potential minefield later on.

Edit: Oh, forgot to say, I'd present the prints as black-and-white, rather than in some imitation/facsimile way, as the results are going to be clearly very different.

 

[crawdiddy]

I like the look of the cyanotype, but I think there would be somewhat of a learning curve. And I'm anti-photoshop, so I admit to the bias.

I would vote for B&W. Possibly toned.

Very nice shot, btw. I like industrial subjects.

 

[kevin m]

...the oldest living manufacturing plant in the area.

This might be nitpicking, but WHAT area? If you don't list your location with your avatar, we don't know where you live! 🙂

 

[charjohncarter]

Original B&W, yes.

 

[danwilly]

Since you are acting as an agent/employee of the presumed owner, the legal issues are not a problem. I would opt for the black and white. Saves a lot of explaining. But if you are putting together an album for the company to use for its own purposes then I would make some attempt at duplicating the original look.

 

[PlantedTao]

I have seen your original B&W's in person and would vote for the B&W...you really do a great job. Your B&W's have a classic feel, so I would not be to worried about them looking like something new. The learning curve for the cyanotypes may not give you the results your use to and waste valuable time.

What is the purpose for this documentation?
Cheers.

Jason

 

[Bryce]

To those concerned about legalities-
Guess I have some explaining to do!
O.K., the legal stuff- I worked for the company as a machinist. When I hired on, I asked permission to take pictures of the facility on my personal time, for my own personal interest. The answer was a definite yes, though it is not on paper. So would the company come after me for printing or distributing these? it seems pretty unlikely to me, but then again there is no signature. I hate having to think of other things than art when I'm in the arty mood!
For what it is worth, my position in the company was as a machinist. Since it is a union shop, my duties there were spelled out ad nauseum and didn't include documenting anything other than that the parts I worked on were in spec. Naturally, the photos were all taken when I was "off the clock".
My intentions- This is a personal art project, fueled by an interest in industrial and local history. Other than selling a few prints (somewhat unlikely) or possibly writing a book about the company's importance in the early years of Everett and Snohomish County (highly unlikely) I don't have plans to use the images commercially. If I were to pursue the book idea sometime in the misty future, I'd need all kinds of contact with the management for information anyway. There just isn't enough information out there to write without their help.
The archived photos have, by the way, been donated to the local (City of Everett) library (by the company, not myself) and are now public property.
Kevin M-
Thought I'd put something like "Western Washington" on my avatar. I'll fix that. 1893 probably doesn't seem all that old to people living in places with industrial history that dates back more than 150 years, huh?
There are probably older shops in Seattle, by the way, but Sumner Iron Works was critical to Snohomish County's early development.

As for the printing style, so far there most seem to prefer the B+W route. My "serious" prints have always been lightly selenium toned, so just a little purplish. Making these with a sepia tone sounds interesting, and would be new for me. I'll kick that around.
Thank you all for your input!