June 21, 2011
A Recipe Book
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The inscription on the first page reads, “Fred Dixon, Lawrence, Mass, 1889”. The pages are yellow and crispy, the binding is cracked and some of the little samples of dyed wool are missing or almost detached. It was Fred’s color recipe book. Sort of a 19th century personal pantone book. It is a book of recipes for the dyes that were used to color the wool produced in the local mills.
Its a fascinating glimpse into the past. One technician’s personal notebook containing handwritten recipes, alongside samples of dyed wool, carefully folded and glued to the pages.
I asked the owners if I could photograph the book. They agreed. I was thrilled. I spent two hours with a macro lens, shooting the book up-close and personal.
Two hours. One book. Many images.
All of the images were shot with a borrowed Macro Lens (thank you Mike Tully) and several are quite abstract in nature. I wanted to open the series with this one. It is a good depiction of the content of the book. Â More to come. And more New York images as well.
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Beautifully captured Bob. Looking forward to seeing more
Wow…what a fantastic piece of history! Really excited to see how you put the Lussier touch on it.
You can smell the paper and hear the pagers wrinkle! Wonderful detail on the yarn decorations! Absolutely awesome Bob!
Man, this is such a cool subject. I’m glad you were allowed to shoot this, and those little bows indicating the dye color is a great touch on this book. Looking forward to what else you got from this wonderful item.
Wow Bob, this is fascinating. I’m always riveted by old photos. I always feel I’ve entered a time machine. Looking at this, you can imagine the guy sitting there with his quill pen and carefully folding and tying those little strings. Fascinating and a really good composition too. Well done!
Excellent capture Bob, love the earthy tones of this image!
Sweet shot Bob – definitely a cool subject to photograph. Love how detailed the notes are with examples, interesting cataloging method.
What an incredible photograph – great way to start the series!
i work in color everyday. we use pantone, toyo, and now many online color management tools. i love the ‘old-school’ way/tradition used to get us to where we are today juxtaposed with modernity. this is not only a superb photo, but, i venture to say one that the book with the writing would be very sought after. the hand-written notes of the inputs to get the color are outstanding.
i work in color everyday. we use pantone, toyo, and now many online color management tools. i love the ‘old-school’ way/tradition used to get us to where we are today juxtaposed with modernity. this is not only a superb photo, but, i venture to say one that the book with the writing would be very sought after. the hand-written notes of the inputs to get the color are outstanding.
Absolutely stunning work, Bob! I cannot wait to see the rest of the series my friend! Fabulous DOF in this, and your processing is absolutely spot on!
nicely taken, great colour and superb DoF – very good work indeed.
An amazing find and very interesting book I’m sure and a glimpse into the history of colour mixology.
I absolutely love this. An amazing piece of history beautifully captured.
Great details in this shot… would love to see that book in person!
Thanks everyone, for the great comments! More images from the book coming later this week.
Whoa!
I’ll bet that you were afraid to breathe for two hours! Stunning capture of historic fragile pages. Looking forward to more!
It must be pretty special holding a book like this – more than 120 years old. I look forward to see more of your series.
Beautiful job on this Bob!
Thanks all .. and thanks, Mike for the use of the macro lens!