Often confused with the ambrotype, this collodion process on fabric or leather emerged in the middle of the 19th century. However, it is still not properly identified and remains erroneously considered a rare technique.
Unidentified artist, Thalia sleeping, pannotype, around 1860, 8,5 x 5,5 cm.
© Christophe Dubois-Rubio
Just like a black hole, huge masses of energy converged on photography in the 19th, on every continent, with engineers, chemist and inventors experimenting and churning out treatises and patents that proved short-lived. Most of the time, these experiments left only more or less inert clusters, but they were recorded in scholarly textbooks of the time. Who knows about wothlytypy, patented by the Swiss Jacob Wothly, or photoglypy, invented by the British Walter Bentley Woodbury? Yet they were widely disseminated internationally. Apart from the daguerreotype, few early photographic processes stayed the course, like the tintype and ambrotype. The little-known pannotype also emerged. Its name is simple and confusing but is easily remembered. This process stands distinctly apart because of its textile or leather support and its traditional applications: calling cards, imitation paintings,…
com.dsi.gazette.Article : 14506
This article is for subscribers only
You still have 85% left to read.
Print the article
