Nettles, Bea. Breaking the Rules: A Photo Media Cookbook by Bea Nettles.

Inky Press, 1977. 1st edition, 1st printing.  Includes Ortho film; Kwik Print; Van Dyke Brown Prints; Photo Screen Printing; Hand Coloring; Pinhole Cameras; Xerography; Cyanotypes; Magazine Rubbings. Wraps (1st edition not issued in hardcover), 55 pages, with media release and brochure from Light Impressions, which was the sole distributor. Near fine in wraps (not issued in hardcover), with slight bump on top right corner. Summary:

reaking the Rules: A Photo Media Cookbook (1977), published by Inky Press Productions, is an influential 55-page instructional guide and artist resource written and illustrated by pioneering photographer and book artist Bea Nettles.

Framed playfully as a "cookbook," the publication acts as a practical manual for artists, educators, and students seeking to bypass standard darkroom limitations and experiment with alternative photographic processes.

Core Themes & Technical Recipes

• Alternative Photographic Processes: The manual provides step-by-step technical "recipes" for classic historic and non-silver printing methods. Nettles guides the reader through the foundational chemistry and application of alternative techniques including:

  • Cyanotype and Van Dyke Brown: Creating iron-based and silver-iron sensitive emulsions for Prussian blue and deep brown monochromatic prints.

  • Gum Bichromate and Kwik Print: Exploring multi-layered, painterly color processes utilizing light-sensitive bichromated colloids.

• Alternative Substrates: Nettles urges photographers to break away from commercial, resin-coated photo papers. The text demystifies how to mix and coat liquid silver emulsions onto unusual physical surfaces, detailing step-by-step methods for printing onto handmade artist's papers, Photo Linen, and washable fabrics.

• Pre-Digital Graphic Manipulation: Long before the advent of digital editing suites, the volume served as a primer for hands-on, mechanical image manipulation. It includes detailed instructions for crafting homemade pinhole cameras, utilizing ortho (high-contrast graphic arts) film, implementing halftone screen dots, and mastering solvent-based magazine lifts and rubbings.

Breaking the Rules is a foundational pedagogy text in the realm of alternative media. Rather than treating darkroom photography as a rigid, prescriptive science, Nettles frames the medium as a fluid, tactile laboratory, encouraging a generation of post-war visual artists to manipulate chemical formulas and physical surfaces to achieve their creative goals.