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fessional Greek photographer of the nineteenth century.
He set up, his fi rst studio, in 1858, in a central road of
Athens (Aiolou Street 925), only to move it some years
later, between 1865 and 1875, a few blocks closer to the
New York Hotel. In 1859, Constantinou participated in
the 1st Olympiad (held in Athens) where he was awarded
a silver medal for his excellent depictions of classi-
cal Greek antiquities; after this distinction followed
many others as he took part in numerous exhibitions in
Greece and abroad such as the International Exhibition
in London (1862) and the Exposition Universelle in
Paris (1867).
Constantinou was also known as the first pho-
tographer to have collaborated with the Greek Ar-
chaeological Society; his task was to document the
archaeological work that Greece had undergone during
the last two decades of the nineteenth century. For this
purpose, he photographed the most important monu-
ments of Athens such as the Acropolis, the temple of
the Olympian Zeus, the Tower of the Winds and the
Theseion. One could characterize Constantinous’ im-
ages as beautiful, but at the same time conventional,
satisfying the taste of the eager market of the nineteenth
century. A closer examination of his photographic work
will reveal his austere and scholarly approach to the
sites produced by the photographer’s interest in the
archaeological as opposed to the picturesque details
of the antiquities.
Aliki Tsirgialou
CONTACT PRINTING AND PRINTING
FRAMES
Contact printing is a method of making a photographic
print in which the negative emulsion is placed into direct
contact with the sensitised material (usually paper) and
exposed to either daylight or artifi cial light. Contact
printing was the principal means to make multiple copies
from either paper or glass negatives until the develop-
ment of and widespread use of solar enlargers from the
early 1860s and reliable artifi cial light sources allowed
for more convenient enlarging to be undertaken.
The most basic form of contact printing pre-dates
photography with objects being placed into direct
contact with a piece of silver-sensitised paper. Talbot’s
photogenic drawing process was essentially a contact
process as was Herschel’s cyanotype process of 1842.
The salted paper prints were also made by placing a
negative directly into contact with a piece of sensitised
paper. These processes and many other processes all
made use of daylight to create the image.
Contact prints were made on albumen paper with
daylight as the exposing light source which gradually
gave way to gelatine printing-out papers, usually silver
chloride based. Ilford Ltd coined the word printing
out paper (POP) and introduced it in 1891 and Kodak
produced their own version under the name Solio from- The introduction of silver chloride papers under
the colloquial name of gaslight papers which came in a
variety of contrast grades (Kodak produced their version
under the name Velox) could be handled under subdued
illumination and exposed by use of gas or electric il-
lumination which made them eminently suitable for
amateur use. As a consequence the printing frame saw
a resurgence of use from the 1880s onwards.
To facilitate contact printing the photographic print-
ing frame was an early feature of photographic dark-
rooms and outfi ts from the 1840s onwards. The printing
frame allowed the negative and receiving sensitised
material to be held tightly together often with some
means of inspection without disturbing the register of
the two during exposure.
The printing frame was also called the reversing
frame or pressure frame. All contemporary writers
stated that two sheets of glass clipped together would
act as a printing frame but recommended the French
form of pressure frame that “opens at the back, in order
that the progress of work may be examined from time
to time. It is rather expensive, but very convenient, and
many blunders will at fi rst be avoided by the use of it.”
(Thornthwaite,1853). Frederick Cox his Compendium of
Photography (1866) stated: “After taking the Negative
on glass, a pressure Frame is required to produce the
paper copies: they are made of various sizes, one suf-
fi ciently large to take the Negative with a small margin
around it, is recommended; and the back-board should
be jointed.” Photographers using printing frames were
cautioned about over-tightening pressure screws which
could cracked the cover glass or more disastrously the
glass negative.
There were variations in design. Frame for printing
from paper negatives, Calotype or waxed-paper, gener-
ally had a glass plate behind which the two pieces of pa-
per were mounted. Those for printing from smaller glass
negatives did not and the glass plate set into a rebate
in the frame acted against the sprung back to maintain
close contact. Some frames were designed to hold two
or more negatives with the cheaper models holding just
one. In 1860 a superior pressure frame with pressure
board hinged in two places was sold for 2s for a 6½ ×
4¾ inch model and 16s for a 12 × 10 inch model. Frames
were available in oak or mahogany with the latter being
slightly more expensive. Bland & Co. in 1863 were of-
fering an Improved Pressure Frame in mahogany in nine
sizes from 13s 6d for a 9 × 7 inch model to £2.15s.6d for
a 25 × 23 inch model and altogether offered thirty-three
different styles in their catalogue.
The basic design of printing frames changed little
through the century. The earlier back pressure screws
gave way to spring metal clips and the sizes of frames,