Photographic alchemist from Cullinan prefers old methods

Gerrit de Lange from Mooiplaats began his keen interest in photography, mainly the darkroom, when he was merely 16 years old.

Fast forward 40 years later, old habits die hard and Gerrit is still drawing inspiration from these old photographic methods.

“My interest in the old photographic processes is the slow way of achieving beautiful hand-crafted results, in contrast to the modern digital environment of instant gratification,” said De Lange.

The process he mostly deals with are the well-known silver gelatine media using photographic film and papers already sensitised (light sensitive) and packaged for use, but his real interests are in the older processes where one has to coat and sensitise your own paper media with light-sensitive chemicals.

“Most of these processes are sensitive to ultraviolet light and need long exposures in the sun or under a UV lamp,” explained De Lange.

Some of the processes he deals with are cyanotype, kallitype, Van Dyk Brown and the gum bichromate process which is a full-colour process.

For most of the processes, he has to manufacture the chemicals needed from absolute scratch and also prepare the fine art media papers to accept these chemicals, making it a long and tedious process.

De Lange is one of the very few people in South Africa that still dabbles in this alchemy.

Should you wish to know more about what he does, he can be contacted on 083 299 6696, as this is a true art form that has been long forgotten.

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