Figure 1: Cocoa-Colored Balenciaga Dress (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn) Irving Penn. Paris 1950. Located in the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
Inventor and Important Figures:
·
In the 1830s, Sir John Herschel and Robert Hunt
began to experiment with platinum printing. Until about the 1860s, Hunt and
others tried to find a way to make successful platinum prints, but weren’t
fully successful. By the 1860s, other easier forms of printing where
discovered, and platinum printing was put on the back burner. However in the
1870s, William Willis began to refine and patent the platinum printing
processes by coming up with better techniques, chemicals, and papers to use. He
gained major popularity by selling his own printing paper for platinum prints,
and was widely successful up until World War I when the cost of platinum became
too high due to its use for weapons during the war.
·
Some notable photographers of platinum prints
include:
o
Nick Brandt
o
Imogen Cunningham
o
Irving Penn
o
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
o
Lois Conner
The Process:
·
The photographer, or printer, can hand mix and
then hand coat the emulsions, with a brush or glass rod, onto photo paper.
·
After the
photo paper is dry, the negative is placed into contact with the photo paper
using ultra violet light. It can take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour
for the image to be fully exposed.
How to Identify and Date Platinum
Prints:
·
Dating:
o
Platinum Printing was popular in the 1880s to
the 1930s, before World War I happened and platinum was used more for weapons
that photography, with its peak in the early 1900s and 1910s.
o
Platinum Prints started becoming popular again,
starting around the 1970s.
·
Identifying:
o
Authentic platinum prints with be soft in colour.
The blacks in the image will be a pitch black, while the greys will look more
silver. They can sometimes have an either bluish or brown tint. The paper used
is matte fiber based paper both on the front and back. Whereas gelatin prints
have glossy images. If paper was used to cover the photo for an extended period
of time, there will eventually be a transferred mirror image of the photo on
the paper.
Preservation Concerns:
·
Some say that because of the metal used, platinum,
platinum prints have a longer preservation life than, say, silver gelatin
prints.
·
Others say that while the metals, the platinum,
and images themselves are permanent, it’s the paper used to create the images
that could cause archival issues in the future.
o
Because of the types of chemicals embedded in
certain types of printing papers, when mixed with the chemical properties of
platinum and other metals, over time, the paper would begin to, essentially,
breakdown cause the image to be negatively altered. One example of this would
be dark red or yellow stains on the image.
o
Solutions for this include using 100% cotton rag
printing paper and when framing platinum prints, to use glass. The less
exposure to other harmful atmospheric gases, or potential preventable accidents
(i.e. coffee spills, etc.), the longer platinum prints will survive.
References
Arentz, Dick, and Bob
Herbst. Platinum and Palladium Printing. 2nd ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier
Focal, 2005. Print.
Boeringa, Marco.
"The Longevity of Platinum and Palladium Prints, a Synopsis." AlternativePhotography.com
The Longevity of Platinum and Palladium Prints a Synopsis Comments. 9 July
2010. Web. 19 Sept. 2015. <http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/post-printing/longevity-of-platinum-and-palladium-prints>
Crane, Tillman.
"The Platinum Printing Process - Tillman Crane Photography." The
Platinum Printing Process - Tillman Crane Photography. Web. 19 Sept. 2015. <http://www.tillmancrane.com/platinum_printing>
Cycleback, David. Judging
the Authenticity of Photographs. "Chapter 14. Rarer Photographic
Processes and Prints.” 5th ed. Hamerweit, 2011. Print. PDF Version: <http://www.cycleback.com/cycleback_photo_course.pdf>
Hafey, John, and Tom
Schillea. "The Platinum Print & The History of The Platinum
Process." Rochester Insitute of Technology, 1979. Web. 19 Sept. 2015. <http://web.archive.org/web/20131228084318/http://www.kimeia.com/pdf/history.pdf
>
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