Assignment 1: Salted Paper Prints

Salted Paper Prints

“How charming it would be if it were possible to cause these natural images to imprint themselves durable and remain fixed upon the paper? And why should it not be possible?”
-- William Henry Fox Talbot, The Pencil of Nature, 1844 [1]  

 

A Scene in a Library, 1843–44  William Henry Fox Talbot (British, 1800–1877)
Salted paper print from paper negative; 5 1/4 x 7 1/16 in. (13.3 x 18 cm)
Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005 (2005.100.172)

QUICK FACTS

Inventor (Official): William Henry Fox Talbot

Concept Inventor(s):  Thomas Wedgewood & Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, but they could not fix the image. [2]

Dates: 1834-1835, however it was revealed to the world in 1839; it is one of the first positive printing processes. [2]

Time Period: Salted paper prints were popular from the 1840s – late 1860s. [1] 

Alternative Names: Talbotype [1] 

WHAT IS A SALTED PAPER PRINT? 

Any photograph made from a handmade silver chloride printing out paper (paper that used the sun to develop the image, as opposed to using chemicals, which would be a ‘developing out’ paper). This was a positive, print making process, and no enlargement of the image was possible. Either a glass plate negative or a paper negative could be used to make the print. [1] 

Making this ‘salted paper’ is a two-part process:

1. Salt, either ammonium or sodium chloride (common table salt!) is applied to a piece of paper.  Generally this paper was a high quality writing paper.
2. This salt is then converted to sliver chloride when it is recoated with a silver nitrate solution. This is what makes the paper light sensitive. After exposure this image was then fixed. [3] 

KEY ELEMENTS AND CHARACTERISTICS:

•  Matte Surface
• Soft appearance
• Diffused details
• Reddish brown tones before fixing and toning.
• Toning (sometimes done with gold chloride) produced the more desirable tones of warm browns, purples and blacks. [3]
• Negatives had to have a high-density range to produce quality prints. [3]
•  High degree of control over exposure as the images appeared during exposure and could be stopped at any time. [3] 

Hill & Adamson (Scottish, active 1843 - 1848)
[John Henning as 'Edie Ochiltree'], 1846 - 1847, Salted paper print from a Calotype negative
20.5 x 15.7 cm (8 1/16 x 6 3/16 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

IDENTIFYING SALTED PAPER PRINTS:

• Generally show some form of deterioration (faded, and yellowed to some degree) [3]
• Imperfect prints, normally process spots or chemical blemishes can be seen. [3]
• Print is matte (in contrast to albumen prints of the same era which tended to be glossy) [3]
• Tonal colors of brown, purplish brown, and purplish black
• Rough surface
• Paper can be a varying weights (due to the different paper used), and they retain all the characteristics of the paper it was printed on. [4]
• Under magnification (as low as 30x) paper fibers can be seen. [4]
• Any positive print made between 1840 and 1850 is most likely a salted paper print as it was the most prevailing process of the time. [3]
• When viewed through a light table, the prints are partially translucent and sometimes a watermark (from the paper used) can be seen. [2]

Salted Print under 30x magnification
From Graphic Atlas

DATING SALTED PAPER PRINTS:

Generally speaking most salted paper prints are from 1840 -1855, while there are still some photographers that used this process into the 1860s, by that point the dominate photographic print was made with albumen paper. [3] Additionally any salted paper print that used the gold chloride toning process was made after its invention in 1847. [2]

PRESERVATION CONCERNS: 

• Abrasions on the surface of the print. [6] 
• Paper Deterioration: Since salted paper prints are printed on regular paper, they are subject to many of the same paper deterioration as documents. Ex: foxing, discoloration, stains, weaknesses, brittleness, thinned areas, and tears. [6] 
• Instability & Fading of Prints:

o   This is mainly due to improper fixing, either caused by:

1)   The chemicals not being thoroughly washed off after fixing. [3]

2)   The photographer using an old batch of fixer. This was sometimes done on purpose, as an older batch of fixer often deepened the tonal qualities of the image. However given the fact that it was old, it obviously did not properly fix the prints.  [3]

PREDOMINATE ARTISTS & USERS: 

From 1840 to 1850, salted paper prints remained the dominant positive printing process, and when in compared to the daguerreotype, it was relatively easy process to learn. Additionally, one could create numerous prints from one negative, something the daguerreotype couldn't do. However, like the daguerreotype, the process was patented, and therefore photograph, as field, remained in the hands of the selection few who could afford it. [3]   

The painting-photographer team of David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson are among the first photographers to create a large body of “self-consciously artistic work.” They were a Scottish duo, and unlike their English counterparts, they were not inhibited by Talbot’s patent restrictions.  In the 4 ½ years they worked together, they produced approximately 3,000 images, and to this day their body of work is still considered to be among of the highest achievements in photographic portraiture. [5]

Lady Ruthven, ca. 1845;  David Octavius Hill (Scottish, 1802–1870); Robert Adamson (Scottish, 1821–1848)
Salted paper print from paper negative; 7 13/16 x 5 7/8 in. (19.9 x 15 cm)
The Rubel Collection, Purchase, Manfred Heiting and Lila Acheson Wallace Gifts, 1997 (1997.382.18)

^[1]  Kennel, Sarah, Diane Waggoner, and Alice Carver-Kubik. In The Darkroom. Washington DC: National Gallery of Art, 2009.

^[2] Graphic Atlas. “Graphics Atlas: Identification Salted Paper”. Image Permanence Institute. 2015. http://www.graphicsatlas.org/identification/.

^[3] Reilly, James M. The Albumen & Salted Paper Book. Rochester, NY: Light Impressions Corporation, 1980.

^[4] Graphic Atlas. “Graphics Atlas: Identification Salted Paper”. Image Permanence Institute. 2015. http://www.graphicsatlas.org/identification/.

^[5] Daniel, Malcolm. “David Octavius Hill (1802–1870) And Robert Adamson (1821–1848).” Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2015.  http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hlad/hd_hlad.htm.
[6] Reilly, James M. The Care and Identification of 19th Century Photographic Prints. Rochester, NY: Eastman Kodak Company, 1986.