Shooting Days

Picture number 4 mimics an old photographic toning process. The toning process is used with black and white photographs to improve the conservation of the pictures by replacing the silver salts with salts that are more stable. This is normally done after the complete developpement of the picture.

The sepia toning was widely used and the yellowish tint of the photos is well known: that's because the sepia toning is the most stable. Other toning ingredients were also used, but the pictures faded quite rapidly (even faster than not-toned pictures).

The uranotype toning used some uranium salts and produced a red toning. This red toning is quite appropriate, since the region is called “Terres Rouges” because of the color of the soil caused by it's high content in iron ore. The iron ore of the region, called “Minette Lorraine” was used for a while, but was replaced by imported iron ore, which did not contain phosphorus (very difficult to remove from the ore and the metal).

Once the manufacturer switched to imported ore, there was no economic reason to continue to use the blast furnace at Esch-sur-Alzette, because it was cheaper to produce the steel in Ghent (Sidmar) or Dunkirk, near the sea.