untitled

gelatin silver print (Charcoal black) sandwich-mounted in album page with printed paper descriptions on mount, bound in black full canvas boards

stamped title Dassonville Charcoal Black on front cover

William Dassonville, also a chemist and one-time neighbor of Ansel Adams, produced his own photographic papers and emulsions for artistic effects in his prints and later expanded his business to include the manufacture of photographic papers, such as his famous "Charcoal Black." His photographic paper, used by Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham, among others, brought Dassonville short-term commercial success, but it plummeted as rejection of pictorialist photography grew in the 1930s.
The print is part of a sample book as an example of the various papers and effects Dassonville achieved with his beautiful Charcoal Black papers.
(Bassange, 2023)

As a Pictorialist he strove for harmonious compositions that emulated paintings in order for his prints to be considered fine art and used soft focus and a limited tonal range to idealize his subjects. As a result, his poetic images go against the inherent nature of photography as a mirror of reality―during a period of marked industrialization in Northern California.
(McIntosh Collection)