Platinum prints, also called ''platinotypes'', are photographic prints made by a
monochrome
A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, monochrom ...
printing
Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...
process involving
platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver".
Pla ...
.
Platinum tones range from warm black, to reddish brown, to expanded mid-tone grays that are unobtainable in silver prints.
Unlike the silver print process, platinum lies on the paper surface, while
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...
albumen
Egg white is the clear liquid (also called the albumen or the glair/glaire) contained within an egg. In chickens it is formed from the layers of secretions of the anterior section of the hen's oviduct during the passage of the egg. It forms aro ...
emulsion
An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible (unmixable or unblendable) owing to liquid-liquid phase separation. Emulsions are part of a more general class of two-phase systems of matter called colloids. Altho ...
that coats the paper. As a result, since no gelatin emulsion is used, the final platinum image is absolutely
matte
Matte may refer to:
Art
* paint with a non-glossy finish. See diffuse reflection.
* a framing element surrounding a painting or watercolor within the outer frame
Film
* Matte (filmmaking), filmmaking and video production technology
* Matte p ...
with a deposit of platinum (and/or
palladium
Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself na ...
, its sister element which is also used in most platinum photographs) absorbed slightly into the paper.
Platinum prints are the most durable of all photographic processes. The
platinum group
The platinum-group metals (abbreviated as the PGMs; alternatively, the platinoids, platinides, platidises, platinum group, platinum metals, platinum family or platinum-group elements (PGEs)) are six noble, precious metallic elements clustered t ...
metals are very stable against chemical reactions that might degrade the print—even more stable than
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
. 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 and fiber-based papers. However, platinotypes that have been waxed or varnished will produce images that appear to have greater than silver prints.
* A 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.
Many practitioners have abandoned platinum and only use palladium. The process using palladium alone (
sodium tetrachloropalladate
Sodium tetrachloropalladate is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Na2PdCl4. This salt, and the analogous alkali metal salts of the form M2PdCl4, may be prepared simply by reacting palladium(II) chloride with the appropriate alkali meta ...
) is similar to standard processes, but rather than using
ferric oxalate
Ferric oxalate, also known as iron(III) oxalate, is a chemical compound composed of ferric ions and oxalate ligands; it may also be regarded as the ferric salt of oxalic acid. The anhydrous material is pale yellow; however, it may be hydrated to f ...
plus potassium chlorate as the restrainer (which is ineffective for palladium), a weak solution of
sodium chloroplatinate
Sodium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Na (from Latin ''natrium'') and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 element, group 1 of the ...
is used instead. Sodium chloroplatinate, in contrast to potassium chlorate, does not cause grain. This formula is generally referred to as the ''Na2 method''. This somewhat misleading abbreviation was coined by Richard Sullivan of Bostick & Sullivan, one of the principal suppliers of chemistry and printing supplies, who popularized the process.
History
The first person to have recorded observing the action of light rays on platinum was Ferdinand Gehlen of Germany in 1830. The following year, his countryman,
Johann Wolfgang Dobereiner
Johann, typically a male given name, is the German form of ''Iohannes'', which is the Latin form of the Greek name ''Iōánnēs'' (), itself derived from Hebrew name ''Yochanan'' () in turn from its extended form (), meaning "Yahweh is Gracious" ...
, determined that the action of light on platinum was quite weak, but that perhaps something could be combined with platinum to increase its sensitivity. Through experimentation, he eventually found that
ferric oxalate
Ferric oxalate, also known as iron(III) oxalate, is a chemical compound composed of ferric ions and oxalate ligands; it may also be regarded as the ferric salt of oxalic acid. The anhydrous material is pale yellow; however, it may be hydrated to f ...
was a highly-effective enhancer. The combination of these two metals remains the basis of the platinotype process in use today.John Hafey & Tom Shillea The Platinum Print & The History of the Platinum Process kimeia.com
In 1832, Englishmen
Sir John Herschel
Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet (; 7 March 1792 – 11 May 1871) was an English polymath active as a mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor, experimental photographer who invented the blueprint and did botanical wor ...
and Robert Hunt conducted their own experiments, further refining the chemistry of the process. In 1844, in his book '' Researches on Light'', Hunt recorded the first known description of anyone employing platinum to make a
photographic print
Photographic printing is the process of producing a final image on paper for viewing, using chemically sensitized paper. The paper is exposed to a photographic negative, a positive transparency (or ''slide''), or a digital image file projected ...
. However, although he tried several different combinations of chemicals with platinum, none of them succeeded in producing any permanency in the image. All of his prints faded after several months.
Over the next decade, Hunt noted that platinum prints he had left in the dark faded very slowly but gradually resumed their original density, and had also shifted from a negative to a positive image, eventually becoming permanent.
By the early 1850s, however, other more reliable photographic processes, such as
salt
Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...
and
albumen
Egg white is the clear liquid (also called the albumen or the glair/glaire) contained within an egg. In chickens it is formed from the layers of secretions of the anterior section of the hen's oviduct during the passage of the egg. It forms aro ...
printing, had been developed and were beginning to be widely used. Those scientists who had previously conducted research on platinum lost interest in the process as other methods became more commercially viable. The only major advances in platinum research reported during that decade were made independently by
C.J. Burnett
CJ or similar may refer to:
Businesses
* BA CityFlyer (IATA airline designator)
*China Northern Airlines (IATA airline designator)
*CJ Group (also known as Cheil Jedang), a South Korean conglomerate
*CJ CheilJedang, South Korean food and beverage ...
and Lyonel Clark of Great Britain. In 1859, Burnett published an article in the ''
British Journal of Photography
The ''British Journal of Photography'' (BJP) is a magazine about photography, published by 1854 Media. It includes in-depth articles, profiles of photographers, analyses, and technological reviews.
History
The magazine was established in Liver ...
'' describing his use of sodium chloroplatinate as a
fixing agent
Fixing may refer to:
* The present participle of the verb "to fix", an action meaning maintenance, repair, and operations
* "fixing someone up" in the context of arranging or finding a social date for someone
* "Fixing", craving an addictive drug, ...
. His modification of the platinum printing process resulted in prints that were permanent enough that he could exhibit them in public. That same year, Clark also exhibited prints made using a slightly different process.
Patents
William Willis was the first to patent the platinotype process in 1873 (British Patent No. 2011, June 8, 1873), and again in 1878 and 1880, which he leveraged to gain commercial success in the manufacture of platinum papers sold through his Platinotype Company for
professional
A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...
and amateur use. He also developed the palladium process requiring palladiotype paper and a silver-platinum paper, Satista.
Willis introduced the "
hot bath
Hot or the acronym HOT may refer to:
Food and drink
*Pungency, in food, a spicy or hot quality
*Hot, a wine tasting descriptor
Places
* Hot district, a district of Chiang Mai province, Thailand
**Hot subdistrict, a sub-district of Hot Distric ...
" method where a mixture of ferric oxalate and potassium chloroplatinate are coated onto paper which is then exposed through a negative and developed in a warm solution of potassium oxalate.
Commercialization
While Willis had greatly advanced the chemistry of the platinum process, there was still no reliable method for the individual preparation of platinum paper by 1880. Two years, later two
Austrian Army
The Austrian Armed Forces (german: Bundesheer, lit=Federal Army) are the combined military forces of the Republic of Austria.
The military consists of 22,050 active-duty personnel and 125,600 reservists. The military budget is 0.74% of nati ...
officers, Giuseppe Pizzighelli and Arthur Baron V. Hubl, published a dissertation describing a straightforward process for preparing the paper. They continued their research for several years, and in 1887, Pizzighelli patented a new process that made the commercial production of platinum paper viable for the first time. The new process was briefly known as a " Pizzitype" and was marketed under the name "Dr. Jacoby's Printing Out Paper."
Willis quickly countered this advance by obtaining two more patents in 1888 for cold-bath processes. By adding more platinum to the developing process, he produced prints that had dense brown-black shadows rather than the lighter browns that were the best that previous processes could produce. While much more aesthetically pleasing, prints developed by this process were difficult to produce reliably.
Four years later, Willis began manufacturing a platinum paper that was designed for the cold-bath process, and this became the standard for the rest of the decade. The business he started in 1880, called the Platinotype Company, rapidly expanded, and soon he was selling his paper throughout Europe and in the United States. By 1906, his company had sales totaling US $273,715 ($ in 2009 dollars), a significant amount at that time.
Seeing the skyrocketing demand for platinum paper, the Eastman Kodak Company in
Rochester, New York
Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...
, tried to develop its own line of paper starting in 1901, but they could not duplicate the quality of Willis's product. Kodak then tried to buy Willis's company but was not able to come to an agreement. Kodak instead bought the relatively new company of Joseph Di Nunzio who had recently developed his own brand of platinum paper comparable to Willis's, which he sold under the name of "Angelo". Kodak continued to sell this paper for several years before it was eventually discontinued.
When Willis began marketing his paper, platinum was relatively cheap. By 1907, platinum had become 52 times more expensive than silver. Eastman Kodak and most other producers stopped fabrication of the paper in 1916.
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
controlled 90% of the world platinum supply in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and all available platinum was used in the war effort. Nevertheless, platinum paper has continued in use until the present, interrupted only by the world wars.
Palladium
In
photography
Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employe ...
, the ''palladiotype'' is a less-common variant of the platinotype. The process came into greater use after World War I because the platinum used in the more-common platinotype quickly became too expensive. Due to the rising cost and the consequent shortage of commercial platinum paper, photographers tried to replace the platinum with the much cheaper palladium which gave similar effects. The cost of this metal, however, also started to rise and eventually around 1930 the process was abandoned in favor of more economical alternatives. In recent years, a handful of photographers have taken up the art of mixing platinum and palladium and printing fine art prints with those chemicals, despite its cost.
Characteristics of a palladium print, compared to a platinum print:
*A warmer tone
*Easier to solarize (see the
Sabatier Effect
The Sabatier effect, also known as pseudo-solarization (or pseudo-solarisation) and erroneously referred to as the Sabattier effect, is a phenomenon in photography in which the image recorded on a negative or on a photographic print is wholly o ...
)
*Large tonal range, up to D= 2.1, thus requiring a contrast-rich negative for printing
*Deeper blacks, with a higher maximum density
*A softer image, with delicate highlights
Chemistry
Platinum printing is based on the
light sensitivity Photosensitivity is the amount to which an object reacts upon receiving photons, especially visible light. In medicine, the term is principally used for abnormal reactions of the skin, and two types are distinguished, photoallergy and phototoxicity ...
of
ferric oxalate
Ferric oxalate, also known as iron(III) oxalate, is a chemical compound composed of ferric ions and oxalate ligands; it may also be regarded as the ferric salt of oxalic acid. The anhydrous material is pale yellow; however, it may be hydrated to f ...
. Ferric oxalate is reduced to
ferrous oxalate
Ferrous oxalate, or iron(II) oxalate, is an inorganic compound with the formula FeC2O4 where is typically 2. These are orange compounds, poorly soluble in water.
Structure
The dihydrate FeC2O4 is a coordination polymer, consisting of chains o ...
by
UV-light
Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation i ...
. The ferrous oxalate then reacts with platinum(II) or palladium(II) reducing it to elemental platinum (or palladium), which builds up the image.
By varying the amount of platinum versus palladium and the addition of oxidizing chemicals such as
hydrogen peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical compound with the formula . In its pure form, it is a very pale blue liquid that is slightly more viscous than water. It is used as an oxidizer, bleaching agent, and antiseptic, usually as a dilute solution (3% ...
and
potassium dichromate
Potassium dichromate, , is a common inorganic chemical reagent, most commonly used as an oxidizing agent in various laboratory and industrial applications. As with all hexavalent chromium compounds, it is acutely and chronically harmful to health ...
or potassium chlorate, the contrast and "color" of the final image can be modified. Because of the non-uniformity of the coating and mixing phases of the process, no two prints are exactly the same.
In 2002, working from research done by Howard Efner and Richard Sullivan, Dick Arentz formulated the methodology for using sodium chloroplatinate as a contrast control agent. Richard Sullivan coined the term Na2 and began to sell a 20% solution through Bostick and Sullivan. Arentz found that, since it is a platinum compound (sodium chloroplatinATE), it does not work with platinum prints (potassium chloroplatinITE). It does, however, shorten the scale of a pure palladium print. When minute quantities of sodium chloroplatinate are added to the palladium salt/ferric oxalate emulsion it produces the high-contrast prints needed for thin negatives, but does not exhibit the granularity found when using traditional chlorates. A palladium print made with potassium chlorate will take on a warm, sepia tone. The same print using sodium chloroplatinate will have cooler tones similar to those of a platinum/palladium print.
The inherent low sensitivity of the process occurs because the ferric oxalate is sensitive to
ultraviolet light
Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nanometer, nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 Hertz, PHz) to 400 nm (750 Hertz, THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than ...
only, thus specialized light sources must be used and exposure times are many times greater than those used in silver-based photographic processes.
Due to the unavailability of pre-coated sensitized paper, all platinum/palladium printing is done on paper coated by the printer. The light sensitive chemicals are mixed from powdered basic chemicals, or some commercially available solutions, then hand applied with a brush or a cylindrical "pusher".
Many artists achieve varying effects by choosing different papers for different surface characteristics, including
vellum
Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. Parchment is another term for this material, from which vellum is sometimes distinguished, when it is made from calfskin, as opposed to that made from other anima ...
, 100% cotton rag, silk, and rice, among others. On the collecting market, platinum prints often sell for many times what a similar silver-gelatin print would bring.
George Charles Beresford
George Charles Beresford (10 July 1864 – 21 February 1938) was a British studio photographer, originally from Drumlease, Dromahair, County Leitrim.
Early life
A member of the Beresford family headed by the Marquess of Waterford and the thir ...
*
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Imogen Cunningham
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*
Edward S. Curtis
Edward Sherriff Curtis (February 19, 1868 – October 19, 1952) was an American photographer and ethnologist whose work focused on the American West and on Native American people. Sometimes referred to as the "Shadow Catcher", Curtis travele ...
Frederick H. Evans
Frederick H. Evans (26 June 1853 – 24 June 1943) was an English photographer, best known for his images of architectural subjects, such as English and French cathedrals.
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*
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Frederick Hollyer
Frederick Hollyer (17 June 1838 – 21 November 1933) was an English photographer and engraver known for his photographic reproductions of paintings and drawings, particularly those of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and for portraits of lite ...
*
Gertrude Kasebier
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Places In space
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* 710 Gertrud, a minor planet
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* Gertrude, Arkansas
* Gertrude, Washington
* Gertrude, West Virginia
People
*Gertrude ...
Sal Lopes
Salvatore Lopes is an American photographer and printer.
He was a recipient of the 2013 Anchor Award from the University of Hartford's Alumni Association.
Lopes received his BA and MA from the University of Hartford in Connecticut.Robert Mapplethorpe
* Andrea Modica
*
Tina Modotti
Tina Modotti (born Assunta Adelaide Luigia Modotti Mondini, August 16/17, 1896 – January 5, 1942) was an Italian American photographer, model, actor, and revolutionary political activist for the Comintern. She left Italy in 1913 and moved to ...
Tom Sandberg
Tom Sandberg (born 6 August 1955) is a former nordic combined skier from Mo i Rana, Norway who competed from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s.
During the 1982 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, he won the 15 km individual event by 0.2 seconds ...
Edward Steichen
Edward Jean Steichen (March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter, and curator, renowned as one of the most prolific and influential figures in the history of photography.
Steichen was credited with tr ...
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Paul Strand (October 16, 1890 – March 31, 1976) was an American photographer and filmmaker who, along with fellow modernist photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century. ...
Edward Weston
Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers..." and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." ...
*
Clarence H. White
Clarence Hudson White (April 8, 1871 – July 8, 1925) was an American photographer, teacher and a founding member of the Photo-Secession movement. He grew up in small towns in Ohio, where his primary influences were his family and the social l ...
*
Trevor and Faye Yerbury
Trevor ( Trefor in the Welsh language) is a common given name or surname of Welsh origin. It is an habitational name, deriving from the Welsh ''tre(f)'', meaning "homestead", or "settlement" and ''fawr'', meaning "large, big". The Cornish langu ...
See also
*
Photographic processes
A list of photographic processing techniques.
Color
*Agfacolor
** Ap-41 process (pre-1978 Agfa color slides; 1978-1983 was a transition period when Agfa slowly changed their color slide films from AP-41 to E6)
*Anthotype
*Autochrome Lumière, 190 ...
References
Further reading
*
*
* Dick Arentz. Platinum & Palladium Printing, Second Edition. Focal Press. 2004