Look back: Carbon Transfer Masterclass

Last weekend SPS ran this very success workshop by Peter Moseley.

‘Carbon transfer’ (also known as carbon-tissue and carbon-pigment) is a genuinely ‘continuous tone’ printing process. It can produce beautiful and fully archival prints using whatever coloured pigment the artist cares to choose. Though it’s roots are in the second half of the nineteenth century, for fidelity and fineness of resolution the process is rarely surpassed by modern techniques.

The carbon transfer process is known for its excellent ‘photographic’ properties. Carbon prints are sharp, stable and have great shadow detail. Prints can be made on a great variety of substrates, including hand-made and art papers and can exhibit an almost three dimensional bas-relief appearance.

Photographs by Sarah Duncan

Peter Moseley
Peter has been a practicing photographer for over forty years, with a particular interest in portraiture. For the last ten years he has been working with a range of ‘alternative processes’ – including carbon transfer, platinum, gravure, salt and albumen, cyanotype and gum printing. He completed an MA in Printmaking at Brighton University in 2008 and is now halfway through a PhD research project at UWE investigating aspects of the nineteenth century photographic printing processes. He has shown work at solo and group exhibitions.