Uto Paper 1906–1911, after 1911 Utocolor Paper, after 1912 Utocolor-Rapid-Paper
Description
“In 1906 John Henry Smith (1860–1917) and Waldemar Merckens commercially introduced a collodion paper impregnated with fugitive yellow, magenta, and cyan dyes. They called it Uto paper, after a range of mountains near Zurich (Johnson 1917: 193). Before printing, the paper had to be soaked for a few minutes in a solution of hydrogen peroxide that made the dyes light-sensitive. While still moist, the paper was placed in contact with a colored image on glass and exposed to light. The dyes faded in proportion to the amount of light they were exposed to, and a positive image was formed. Subsequently, Smith discovered that anethol was not only a better sensitizer than hydrogen peroxide but could be incorporated into the color layer during manufacture, thus eliminating the sensitizing step. That second paper still bore the trademark Uto, but ‘aneto [anethol] manufacture’ was added to the box label (Fig. 6.3).3 To eliminate anethol from the paper and desensitize, or ‘fix,’ the dyes after printing, the print was soaked for several hours in a stabilizing bath of benzol.4 Uto paper proved very disappointing and unsatisfactory owing to the irregular way in which the colors printed out, the lack of sensitivity of the colors to light, and the paper’s unpleasant smell from the sensitizing solutions.5 However, the phenomenal success of autochrome plates, which were introduced in 1907, stimulated renewed interest in the bleach-out process and the search for a product that would allow multiple prints to be made from the one-of-a-kind transparencies. In October 1911 Smith introduced Utocolor Paper, which was manufactured in La Garenne-Colombes on the outskirts of Paris, where the inventor had established a small factory. Utocolor Paper featured a different dye sensitizer than its predecessors, thiosinamine, and was thus free from the objectionable smell of anethol.6 Stabilization of the image after printing was achieved via two successive Utocolor ‘fixing’ baths (BJP 1911).7 The new paper was faster than Uto Paper, but exposure times were still impractically long. It took close to two hours in direct sunlight to print from an autochrome, which could lead to several problems, including the melting of the autochrome protective varnish and the fading of its colors. ‘I fear the number of spoiled Autochromes exceeded the number of good prints produced,’ noted H. E. Rendall (1919), underlining the strong desire for paper prints expressed by many photographers at the time. To remedy these obvious problems, the Utocolor Company supplied filters that absorbed ultraviolet radiation and a special varnish that would not soften in the sun during exposure and had to be coated over the screen plate before printing. The results were disappointing. Clean whites were difficult to obtain, and the fixing was not perfect. Consequently, many questioned the usefulness of further research on bleach-out printing. Utocolor Paper had limited commercial success and was only on the market for a few months. In May 1912 it was replaced by an improved version called Utocolor-Rapid-Paper, with increased sensitivity to light.8 The paper was coated with a layer of white baryta, over which an insulating colorless layer of gelatin was laid before the final layer of gelatin containing dyes and sensitizers (Fig. 6.4). A variant of the paper called Utocolor Stripping Paper was also available and was used to make lantern slides or correctly oriented paper prints (Johnson 1917).”
(Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, on pp. 209–210.)
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Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 209.
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Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 211.
Secondary Sources
Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, on pp. 209–211. View Quote
