Randall Webb, my mentor and friend, who has died aged 78, was a master of ancient and alternative photographic printing processes and an inspiring teacher. With Martin Reed, he wrote the definitive manual of alternative printing techniques, Spirits of Salts: Working Guide to Old Photographic Processes (1999). This book, also published in the US and translated into French, was a major influence in the revival of interest in antique image processing.
For more than 30 years Randall taught photography, in Richmond and Twickenham for Richmond Adult Education, and at colleges and schools including St Martin's School of Art, London, the German School, Richmond, and the American School, in Thorpe, Surrey. He worked with photographic groups including Framework, the Richmond and Twickenham Photographic Society and Group 6, and he created his own group, Group 1:20, which is how I came to know him. In 1997 he founded the quarterly arts magazine Network.
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