Four-color gum bichromate prints
“Mani pulite”… and other stories.
Mani pulite ( Italian for “clean hands”) was a nationwide judicial investigation into political corruption in Italy held in the 1990s. Mani pulite led to the demise of the so-called “First Republic”, resulting in the disappearance of many political parties.
The gum bichromate is a printing process that has had its peak in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. It is a contact printing process in which the negative must have the same final image size. The image is formed on a sheet of paper for watercolor where it is applied with a brush a mixture of arabic gum, pigment and potassium bichromate. The sheet is exposed, in contact with the negative, to the rays of a UV mercury vapor lamp . Parts taking more light, corresponding to the negative transparencies, harden and adhere to the paper; while the parts that are located under the denser areas of the negative remain soluble in water, where the development of the image takes place. To get real colors I shoot these still lifes with four selection filters: red, green, blue, yellow, receiving four black-white negative and then I print every negative with complementary color; color photography was invented in this way….(the complete procedure can be found here)
I started to practice this difficult technique during the investigation against political corruption called “Mani Pulite” (“Clean Hands”) which so many hopes had turned over the Italian people …. these hopes were totally disregarded, in 1994 Berlusconi was elected to the government … and with this I have said everything … These still lifes are the ironic expression of those days … we were hoping for a better future but, you know, it’s always us that get shafted….
Craxi, powerful secretary of the Socialist party to the government, was later indicted, but he fled in Hammamet, Tunisia, in exile, where he died years later. These days, in Italy, rehabilitation and sanctification practices have begun…
Fortunately in 1994 the man of Providence arrives … (you know which side is Providence) … .Silvio !
Then, disappointed, I also printed other things with this technique, I repeat, very difficult and very long technique… it takes 3 or 4 days for one print…
