Category: Week 9

Platinum Print

“Platinum Print”

Platinum prints are made by photographers and favored by collectors because of their tonal range, the surface quality and their permanence. A platinum print provides a broad scale of tones from black to white. The platinum tones range from warm black, to reddish brown, to expanded mid-tone grays that are unobtainable in silver prints.

Platinum print is a true analog craft that involves creating and coating paper, traditional darkroom techniques and chemical reactions to create prints with unique tonal characteristics.

Platinum prints are the most durable of all photographic processes. The platinum group metals are very stable against chemical reactions that might degrade the print—even more stable than gold. It is estimated that a platinum image, properly made, can last thousands of years. Some of the desirable characteristics of a platinum print include:

• The reflective quality of the print is much more diffuse in nature compared to glossy prints that typically have specular reflections.
• A very delicate, large tonal range.
• Not being coated with gelatin, the prints do not exhibit the tendency to curl.
• The darkest possible tones in the prints are lighter than silver-based prints. Recent studies have attributed this to an optical illusion produced by the gelatin coating on RC and fiber-based papers. However, platinotypes that have been waxed or varnished will produce images that appear to have greater D-max than silver prints.
• A greatly decreased susceptibility to deterioration compared to silver-based prints due to the inherent stability of the process and also because they are commonly printed on 100% rag papers.

 

In 1832, Englishmen Robert Hunt and John Herschel conducted experiments that utilized platinum to create photographic prints. The experiments resulted in monochrome images with exceptional tonal range. Unfortunately, the photos produced by the duo all eventually faded after a few months of time. By 1880, chemist William Willis began producing a stable solution for platinum paper that boomed throughout Europe and the United States producing what is a modern equivalent of over 6 million dollars.

During the printing process, platinum is absorbed into the paper and, due to the nature of the metal, can produce prints that surpass the quality of and longevity of standard silver prints. Characteristics of platinum prints include large tonal ranges, a more diffuse reflective quality, and a tendency not to curl over time as prints do with gelatin.

Platinum printing eventually died out in the early twentieth century when platinum became over 50 times more expensive than silver. At the time, Russia controlled nearly the entire world’s supply of platinum and had put it towards the war effort. However, to this day platinum printing remains an alternative process for those seeking the distinct styling.

Here is the two platinmum prints i found. They are print by Peter Henry Emersons and Thomas Frederick Goodall in 1866.