posterization, creating something with the strong
graphic qualities and visual impact of a poster.
When Romer first drew attention to the possibi-
lities of manipulating the negative, he described his
results as ‘‘Izohelia’’—a Polish term derived from
the Greek, implying equal areas of light. Romer
and his colleagues published improvements to the
process until the outbreak of World War II, by
which time Romer was working in England on
applying hisizoheliaprocess to map making.
Shortly after the war, Ralph Aubrey of Manche-
ster, England, re-examined the process to recom-
mend improvements. His examples demonstrated
that tone separation had a valid place in contem-
porary pictorial photography, and by publishing in
Amateur Photography, Aubrey ensured a wide dis-
tribution for his ideas and many photographers
began to present posterized images in various im-
portant exhibitions.
The post-war renaissance of posterization techni-
ques was acknowledged in Poland, where the Union
of Polish Photographic Artists organised an interna-
tional salon in November 1957 to commemorate 25
years of posterization. Six European countries exhib-
ited 81 entries, but not all the submissions were
especially good examples, many subjects not being
well-suited to the technique. Those who mastered the
intricate method soon became skilled in selecting
subjects that were suitable for the bold treatment of
creating a photograph composed of no more than
black, white, and two tones of grey, however, and by
the second salon in 1962, the contributions displayed
an improved understanding of the process, with for-
mal portraits responding particularly well to the
treatment. Five years later, the third international
salon attracted 128 works from 10 countries. To
commemorate the 40th anniversary of the process,
the Association of Polish Art Photographers staged
‘‘40 Lat Izohelii’’ in memory of Romer, who had
died in 1967. For the first time, the exhibition
included examples in full color.
Romer once referred to posterization as ‘‘this
rather absorbing technique’’ and asserted ‘‘its diffi-
culty makes it rare, and therefore attractive.’’ To
prepare a conventional negative for posterization
called for four distinct phases before the final pic-
ture could be contemplated. In stage one, five
prints were made on a hard grade of bromide
paper at different exposure times, so that all the
negative detail was transferred to the positive form,
albeit spread over different prints. Scrutiny of these
prints allowed unwanted elements of the composite
picture to be discarded.
By using the contact printing method with a hard
grade of bromide paper, the selection of positive
prints was converted into negative prints of very
high contrast, and the ‘‘negatives’’ intended to create
the highlights (white), and the shadows (black) in
which the posterization could be identified. Any
other of the negative prints could be eliminated.
(Note that if three negatives were used, the final
photograph appeared in four tones; that is, black,
white, and two shades of grey. Similarly, two nega-
tives provided three tones of white, grey, and black.)
The negative prints were again printed by contact
onto bromide paper, creating a new set of positives
with enhanced contrast and maximum density. In the
last step, the final negatives were made on lith-type
process film, which retained the detail of the original
paper prints, but distributed over separate film nega-
tives. The final printing stage demanded craftsman-
ship, patience, and darkroom skill as each of the
prepared negatives was exposed, one after the
other, onto a single sheet of photographic paper.
In this process, the highlighted areas received no
exposure and remained white, whereas the small
areas that provided the shadows had to achieve
sufficient exposure to produce full black. Any inter-
mediate negative, intended to produce two grey
tones, relied on receiving the minimum printing
exposure consistent with a good balance of densi-
ties, that is, the separation of tones that produced
the effect of posterization.
Prior to printing, it was customary to enlarge the
individual negatives to the size of the photographic
paper, and to sketch outlines on a piece of drawing
paper as an aid to subsequent registration. Of
course, after exposing the first negative, the photo-
graphic paper had to be removed for safekeeping
during the changeover for the re-alignment of the
second and subsequent negatives. In using this tech-
nique, the final work is unique as a result of the
demands of preparation and the intricacies of print-
ing multiple negatives in register. Because the var-
ious exposures had a cumulative effect in those
parts where there were overlaps in the negatives,
note-taking was advisable.
In 1964, R. M. Callender used the process to
assess the effectiveness of street lighting. His results
provided graphic representations of the illumination
distributed on the road surfaces, and in time, he
calibrated the brightnesses to evaluate features of
the installation. To produce prints in quantity, he
evolved a method that achieved the effect of poster-
ization at a single printing exposure.
In making the final negatives, Callender processed
to a predetermined low density and assembled his
pack of films, usually no more than four, to create
a composite negative. When it was necessary to re-
move one of the low-density negatives, an adjustmentPOSTERIZATION