The Platinum Print - Photographic Processes Series - Chapter 7 of 12
About this video
The platinum print, invented in 1873, was a matte, neutral-black print made by brushing platinum chemistry onto paper and contact printing it in sunlight. It was valued by the Pictorialists for its painterly look and very long tonal range, and is extremely permanent, but it was expensive and died out around World War I when platinum was needed for the war.
You'll be able to
- describe how a platinum print looks and how it differs from an albumen print.
- explain the steps of making a platinum print by contact printing.
- explain why the platinum print was prized and why it declined.
Key words
- Platinum print
- A photographic print whose image is made of platinum metal, with a matte finish and neutral black tones.
- Matte finish
- A surface that is dull rather than shiny.
- Contact printing
- Making a print by placing the negative directly on the sensitised paper, so the print is the same size as the negative.
- Tonal range
- The number of different shades a print can show between the darkest black and the brightest white.
- Pictorialists
- Photographers around 1900 who wanted photographs to look painterly and be accepted as fine art.
- Noble metals
- Precious metals such as gold and platinum that resist corrosion.
Transcript
The platinum print comes at the same time that the albumen print is the most commercially successful process. But they’re very different. The platinum print is a matte finish print It’s a neutral color meaning it’s more black looking. The platinum print comes as an attempt to elevate photography as a fine art.
The platinum print was invented in 1873 by William Willis and Alfred Clements. It involves using platinum metal. Although there are manufactured papers often times you see very beautiful brush strokes on the paper surrounding the image. That’s an effect of literally brushing the chemistry onto the paper.
Museums often mat those out but when I get to look at a print in the archive I open up the mat and I see those brush strokes and I go, ah that’s a platinum print, has to be a platinum print. To me, it’s something really beautiful. So these are examples of platinum prints This is an example of a contemporary photograph made by Craig Barber.
And you can see the brush strokes which show where he’s coated the paper with the chemicals. It’s a contact printing process. So you produce the negative to whatever size you want the final print to be. You would place it in contact with the sensitized paper and expose with sunlight and after exposure a faint image would appear.
Once you place the photograph in the developer the image is fully realized. This is a platinum print by Frederick Evans who was a master of the process. I think one of the most beautiful examples of a platinum print. You can see the characteristics of the process.
It has a matte finish and a very long tonal range. Frederick Evans was an aesthete. They called themselves Pictorialists and made beautiful photographs. The Pictorialists were looking for something that was not garish something that was more painterly. The image sits in the paper rather than on the paper.
Platinum gives you a broader tonal range than any other process even digital today I would argue. The platinum print is often called ‘The King’ of photographic prints. It is regal because of the metals. They’re called noble metals, gold, platinum. Not everybody can do this process because it’s very expensive and it actually dies out around World War I because they need platinum for the war effort.
But one of the things about the platinum print that’s very special is that it’s a very permanent print. Platinum prints don’t fade. They may yellow in the highlights because of bad processing but the image never fades.
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