Re: [Leica] B& W Paper

[Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>]

At 01:15 PM 8/31/1999 PDT, Roy Feldman wrote:
>I do a lot of printing and have found Forte poly 5 FB the best paper I have 
>ever used and I've been doing it professionally for 25 years. It has a high 
>silver content

I've used it, and it IS nice paper.  But a warning is in order:  it is a
bit environmentally questionable.

In the 1960's, Western countries became "environmentally aware" and cracked
down, hard, on the effluent discharge from paper processing plants.  (I
grew up in Pittsburgh back in the Green Sky Days, and the paper mills in
town contributed 10 times the environmental problems to the rivers that the
steel mills did.)  Hence, Agfa and Kodak and the others all reduced the
silver content in their papers.  By 1980, only Ilford was able to dodge
this restriction, as they were too small to come under the UK's
environmental regulations.  And, in the '80's, they got bought out by
International Paper, so the UK ruled Ilford had to comply due to gross
commercial size, and even the sainted Ilford papers went grey.

But the Warsaw Pact soldiered on.  EFKE films from Yugoslavia, ORWO papers
from Germany, and we could still get a hint of our youth.  Then, the Walls
Came Tumbling Down, and even ORWO ("Original Wolfen", the original AGFA
plant) fell prey to, well, extinction.

Forte is the old Kodak plant in Budapest, a plant seized by the Hungarian
government in '43 and nationalized anew by the Worker's Pals in '45.
Hungary allows them to produce REALLY old style papers and films, for a
while, at least.  (This will change when Hungary finally joins the EU.)

But, for the present, enjoy.  I don't regularly use the stuff, but they've
sent me samples a couple of times, and I like their product.  However, I
can walk three blocks and buy all the Ilford paper I need, and have to
order Forte.

Marc



msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
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