WORKSHOP TESTIMONIALS
Maria Fernanda Pallares / Uruguay
Black & White Carbon Transfer Printing 2022
Carbon printing (also, "Carbon transfer") is a photography printing process that at the time served as a springboard for photogravure to achieve its beauty. They are like first cousins who can serve as a reference to each other. I am very grateful to Katayoun Dowlatshahi
@katayounpd at @silverwoodstudio.co.uk for taking the time to provide me with a carbon transfer workshop, for her generosity and her readiness in bringing content closer to my interests. It has been especially interesting for me to see how an artist with vast experience and immersed in multiple languages, works with such a technique. Although the workshop was dedicated to black and white printing, it was a precious opportunity to see something definitely very unlikely to find: a contemporary use of that technique in color. If you review her Instagram account, you will have an approach to those colour prints, whose work with various pigments requires more than a marathon. The image shows the making of gelatine papers, known as "tissue", a supply that both techniques share.
Photograph by Maria Fernanda Pallares
Santiago Barrio / China
Three Colour and Black & White Carbon Transfer Printing 2023
During the last week I have been lucky enough to spend a few days with Katayoun in her studio to learn the carbon printing process. I have seen how she prepared the materials, how she mixed chemical products, how she did mathematical calculations, how she mixed pigments and how finally, after a lot of work, she printed beautiful images treated with the same care with which she treated her environment, (which is also ours) and also I noticed how she paid attention to some things, maybe new to her, but in fact they were not so much.
A few days have passed now, and I write these words trying to put in order what I have learned, the carbon printing process does not resemble any other photographic chemical process, and its results are simply unmatched. it is not a linear work, but transversal, interwoven and with loops in time. It may be a reasonable process, but like any artistic process, it does not arise from reason.
Excellent teacher and artist! Totally recommendable experience.
Santiago Barrio
Image: Photo credit Katayoun Dowlatshahi
Robert Harris / Great Britain
Black & White Carbon Transfer Printing 2023
I attended a course on carbon printing at Silverwood studios. The course was based on creating a black-and-white carbon image.
The course went through each stage from creating the digital negative using my original image. The process of setting up the digital negative was fully explained using Photoshop and Excel. The resulting images were used in the carbon printing process. Using an image I had used for standard inkjet printing was good.
Each stage was explained from creating the tissue, creating a wedge for exposure, transferring the image to temporary and permanent media and finishing. At no stage did any of my questions go unanswered. The information pack and the experience of creating the image provided a good background for completing the image in my own darkroom.
I did make a few mistakes but never felt intimidated; the environment felt supportive and when I made a mistake I was allowed to correct it. Personally I always learn more by working through the process and finding out what I do know. Katayoun was always there if I needed and I found her teaching style very supportive. I always felt comfortable asking the same question again, which was good when I wanted to check my learning.
I also enjoyed talking to a fellow creative that was interested in my own work; sharing your journey with a fellow photographer was priceless and has helped me develop my personal work.
The hospitality was second to none, great room, great food and great company.
Robert Harris
Image: Photo credit Katayoun Dowlatshahi
Fran May / Great Britain
Three Colour Carbon Transfer Printing 2020
I thoroughly enjoyed my Carbon Transfer Printing workshop with Katayoun Dowlatshahi in rural Norfolk. I found Katayoun hugely knowledgeable and she extended my learning in so many additional ways. The workshop was professionally run and well organised, with plenty of useful handouts to take away.
Katayoun took me step by step through the process verbally before we created a print from one of my images. Some of this process is very technical and could have been disconcerting, but Katayoun has a calm manner and an organised system, which explains the most difficult aspects and reduces the sense of complexity.
Carbon Transfer is one of the more challenging of photographic historical processes, but if it is the longevity of the images you want, it is essential to have this process in your repertoire. I was amazed and impressed by the quality of our outcome. The precision paid off and is repeatable. Katayoun’s system does not rely on guesswork, but on a professional planned approach where creativity is in the original image.
One of the best things about a workshop with Katayoun is her high level of creative thinking in a general sense, so conversation during essential drying times in the process was inspirational.
In addition, I was able to stay in her B&B with ensuite, on the premises, which was extremely comfortable. Meals were provided during my workshop, all at a very reasonable price. I award five out of five stars for my five-day workshop. It provided the exact groundwork I needed to begin printing with this process myself.
Fran May
Image: Photo credit Katayoun Dowlatshahi
