The secrets of BFK Rives® paper revealed!
American artist-photographer, Peter J. Blackburn, explains how he has managed to get the hang of BFK Rives® paper for gum bichromate printing and has become a firm convert.
Peter J. Blackburn has found his favorite gum bichromate paper. One that needs no sizing. He shunned this paper for many years, after his initial explorations proved unsatisfactory. Now BFK Rives® has been an epiphany, revealing all its secrets, the artist and the paper are back together again.
When photography becomes painting
Gum bichromate is a contact printing process that allows an artist to add their personal interpretation to an image, combining the tools of painting and photography. Every stage of production is a creative phase, giving the artist the opportunity to individualise their work to varying degrees. The result is a stable, optimum image, as long as you follow a few rules, especially with regard to the quality of the paper and the products used.
“Gum printing for me began in 1988. From the beginning, I ignored the advice of many gum experts to use toxic sizing by searching for ways to print bright, crisp gum prints on unaltered paper. BFK Rives was the very first paper I explored. The results, as I recall, were mostly unsatisfactory. Poor contrast, dirty highlights, blocked shadow detail, and dull colors seemed to plague every print. But other papers brought the same disappointment. And the temptation to experiment with hazardous formalin grew greater with each printing failure. Fabriano Uno and its sizing, alkyl ketene dimer (AKD), literally changed my gum work overnight. From then on, I religiously sought out papers incorporating AKD.
Oh, Deere, Blue and Green, Diptych, 2023. “Unsized” BFK print
A new development in my creative process
In 2022, my gum printing technique took a new twist. My wife, Anne, is an artist who also teaches high school art. One day, she brought home a batch of student artwork to grade. Most of the images were rendered on BFK Rives. The work, woodcut and linocut prints, was quite good.
Ah, BFK Rives. Gorgeous BFK Rives. Oh, how I longed to make a wonderful gum print on this paper. Just one measly print! But jarring alarm bells and cockpit warning voices began exploding in my head. Indeed, the general consensus of the gum literature either advises against the use of BFK Rives or recommends treating BFK with liberal slatherings of unhealthy chemical size. Once again, ignoring the well-intentioned experts, I gave BFK one last chance.
To my delight, Anne had a few sheets of BFK Rives tucked away for her own art. I just couldn’t resist. Oh, how I wanted to make that paper perform just as it was, right out of the package. So I quickly found a few previously printed negatives to use as a test.
Leo, 2024. Printed on Tan BFK Rives, this single-layer portrait was created using a mixture of two gouaches: umber and ultramarine blue.
BFK Rives®, go for alchemy over chemical size
Off to work I went, without adding any supplemental size. No formalin, no glutaraldehyde, no glyoxal. And to my mind-blowing surprise, the gum prints on BFK rendered just as if they were printed on those AKD papers!
I’m sad to read how the toxic triad is still readily recommended, even prescribed, for bichromate printing. Perhaps artists should seriously reconsider this matter and only use toxic sizing as a last resort. Many gum printers seem to use toxic sizing to enable the application of many, many layers for building tonality. But from what I have seen, every layer only lowers contrast and blocks shadows. It seems to be a lot of work, expense, and hazardous duty for little, if any, return. I don’t ever print more than four layers in my work, but I imagine BFK Rives® can handle five, six, or even more without supplemental sizing.
One final word of advice. Consider cutting down on the solution percentage of your dichromate. At present, I only use a 3% potassium dichromate solution as my sensitizer, with an emphasis on the potassium version. While some gum printers manage to create wonderful prints with the ammonium version of dichromate, I believe the potassium selection is more amiable to this process.
But make no mistake. BFK Rives is readily capable of bright, vibrant gum bichromate images right out of the wrapper. However, if you prefer to have flatter, hazier tones, and muted colors in your images, those qualities can easily be rendered on BFK and AKD art papers, too. Just adjust your negatives and your working methods. The fact that this paper, along with many others, readily works without extra steps or preliminary bother helps artists produce pieces more quickly and spontaneously, capturing images “in the moment.”
To this date, I have printed scores of tricolor gum and casein prints on BFK Rives with no added sizing. The contrast is crisp, while subtle detail is clearly evident. Colors are bold and vibrant. Whites are clean. Every print brings new amazement! Unsized BFK Rives is now my primary paper for gum and casein work. And it is a joy to use.”
Ashlen, 2024. Printed on BFK Rives paper using three layers in a CMY progression
Peter J. Blackburn, MA, is an artist who has been working in gum and casein bichromate printing for over thirty years. He has been represented by Afterimage Gallery, Dallas, Texas, since 2004.
