A Platinum Printing Capsule History

Steve Szabo, Wyoming, 1973. Original in platinum / palladium
(George Eastman House)

By Carl Weese and Mike Johnston

1830
Experiments indicate the light sensitivity of platinum. Ferdinand Gehlen finds that under the influence of light, a solution of platinum chloride turns yellow and eventually precipitates out metallic platinum.

1831
Johann Wolfgang Dobereiner, in Germany, looking for greater light sensitivity, tries a variety of platinum compounds. He discovers the combination of potassium chloroplatinite and ferric oxalate that will become the standard combination of chemicals for light sensitive platinum solutions.

1832
English polymath Sir John Herschel, who also discovered fixer and first applied the term "snapshot" to photography, finds several light sensitive platinum solutions. He detects that photosensitivity is confined to the violet end of the spectrum.

Sir John Herschel by Julia Margaret Cameron (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

1844
Robert Hunt succeeds in making platinum photographic prints, but can't make them permanent.

1844–1856
Frustrated in their attempts to find a permanent printing process using platinum, several researchers concentrate on finding a way to use platinum for toning to increase the permanence of silver images. M. de Carranza, in France, first publishes a formula for platinum toning of photographs. Toning formulas are developed for salted paper, albumen, and gelatin.

1873
William Willis obtains the first patent for a platinotype process. Willis finds that the use of potassium oxalate results in predictable image formation in platinum.

1880–1914: The High Period
In 1880, the enduring platinotype process is born. In his third patent related to making photographs from platinum, William Willis introduces the "hot bath" method where a mixture of ferric oxalate and potassium chloroplatinite are coated onto paper which is then exposed through a negative and developed in a warm solution of potassium oxalate. This method has been used ever since.

1887
Captain Giuseppe Pizzighelli patents a platinum Printing Out Paper (POP) process which uses a double salt—sodium ferric oxalate—in the sensitizing solution along with the potassium chloroplatinite, resulting in an image that forms completely on exposure to light without need for liquid development. It is marketed as the Pizzitype. Consistency problems in manufacture spell its demise despite a flurry of enthusiasm from photographers.

1892
Willis forms the Platinotype Company to market his inventions and begins to produce and sell "cold development” paper to the public. ("Cold" in this case meant room temperature.)

1894
Of 382 prints exhibited at the annual show of the Photographic Society in London, 175 are platinotypes.

1895–1905
The Platinotype Company’s products are marketed in the United States and Europe. Competitors begin to offer platinum papers. Platinum becomes one of the primary printing media in the fine art photography and Pictorialist movements, favored by members of The Linked Ring in Britain, the Secession in Vienna, and Alfred Stieglitz's Photo-Secession in the United States. Emerson in Britain and Stieglitz in America both declare gravure and platinum to be the only two processes suitable for artistic photography. The Platinotype is favored by proponents of "straight" or unmanipulated photography; advocates of extensive hand manipulation of photographic images begin to favor the gum bichromate process. The silver papers that will later become standard for black-and-white photography are perceived as appropriate mainly for commercial and professional purposes.

1906
Eastman Kodak Co. brings platinum papers to market for the first time.

1911
The Platinotype Company is offering 15 different styles of platinum paper while Kodak offers an even greater array of emulsion colors and surface textures and weights. Platinum printing is still the perceived high point of photographic procedures, but is rapidly losing ground to high-speed "gaslight" silver chlorobromide enlarging papers. Platinum is becoming increasingly expensive.

1914
The First World War cuts off supplies of platinum, most of which is mined in Russia.

1916
The Platinotype Company introduces a palladium based paper to compensate for the increasingly prohibitive cost of platinum.

Kodak ceases production of platinum papers.

1917
The Platinotype Company ceases importing paper to the United States. Several important photographers including Paul Strand, Laura Gilpin, and Edward Weston continue to use privately imported materials. Platinum is nearly unobtainable in wartime Europe.

Frederick H. Evans, The Loft at Kelmscott Manor. Original in platinum.

In England, Frederick Evans—whom George Bernard Shaw called "the ideal bookseller"—quits photography altogether when commercial Platinotype papers become unavailable. He is still known today as one of the greatest platinum printers in the history of photography.

1920s—1960s: The Interregnum
Platinum printing falls into neglect. Scattered devotees continue to work with platinum by hand mixing and coating; but the platinotype and its derivatives have become anachronistic, a part of history.

In the 1930s, Paul Anderson develops the current two-solution, drop-counting, ferric oxalate method of hand coating papers for platinum printing. He publishes instructional articles in various photography journals. A few magazine articles give evidence that a small but dedicated coterie of workers were making platinum prints with Anderson’s method through the 1960s, but largely in obscurity.

1970s: The Revival
During a general period of explosive growth and advancement known now as The Photo Boom, platinum printing is rediscovered as an innovative fine-art method by a number of adventurous photographers.

• George Tice begins working in platinum; publishes The Lost Art of Platinum Printing, in 1970; and demonstrates platinum printing in the widely disseminated Life Library of Photography volume Caring for Photographs, 1972.

Original print in platinum / palladium; picture by Irving Penn.

• Irving Penn exhibits handmade platinum prints. The great degree of attention he gets from a mainstream media newly infatuated with photography seems equally divided between interest in his images and in the platinum printing process he employs.

• In Wilmington, Delaware, Alan Goodman founds Elegant Images, a company devoted to supplying Pt/Pd printing materials to photographers.

• Arnold Gassan publishes Handbook of Contemporary Photography, which dedicates a chapter to the handmade platinum print.

• Steve Szabo publishes The Eastern Shore, printed from 8x10" platinum prints.

• Nancy Rexroth publishes an instruction booklet on palladium and platinum printing called The Platinotype 1977 that becomes an underground best seller.

• In 1979, RIT publishes The Platinum Print by John Hafey and Tom Shillea, with duotone reproductions by 21 photographers working in the revived platinum process.

• William Crawford, also in 1979, publishes The Keepers of Light, soon to become a bible of alternative processes for artists and hobbyists, which contains a major treatment of platinum printing.

By the end of the decade, platinum had regained a place as the "Rolls-Royce" of fine printing techniques. It makes exquisite original fine-art objects with great presence; its main drawback is that its qualities are difficult to reproduce well on the printed page (except in photogravure, which is also rare).

1984
Louis Nadeau publishes The History and Practice of Platinum Printing (revised 1986, 1994), which combines historical information, including original patents, with working instructions for modern practitioners.

1988
Photographer Rob Steinberg and his wife Sura form the Palladio Company to manufacture and market machine-coated platinum paper—the first commercially marketed platinum-palladium paper after a 50-year absence from the market. Surprisingly, hand-coaters are resistant to the new product—they don't want to share their "guild secrets" with anyone who can buy product off a shelf! Palladio suffers recurring problems with paper procurement*; the official reason for Palladio's eventual demise was that it was absorbing too much of Rob and Sura's time.

Today, platinum printing is firmly established among a small but dedicated group of craft practitioners, and is highly prized among galleries and collectors. It's difficult to say with certainty, but interest in the process seems to have been hardly affected at all by the rise of digital—it's possible that the prestige of the process, which was already very high, has even been enhanced.

Carl and Mike

*Sura explained to me (MJ) that some of the properties important to platinum/palladium coating were not even qualities that paper mills controlled for, or allowed clients to specify.

Note: Carl's platinum / digital print sale—TOP's first-ever offering of prints made with this technique—starts at noon this coming Sunday. Please check back then for details. —MJ

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Original contents copyright 2010 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Bill Mitchell: "For 50 years, until George Tice took up the baton, platinum printing was virtually kept alive in the U.S. by Laura Gilpin."

Featured Comment by Rod S.: "In recent years I've seen several beautiful platinum-palladium prints by Gordon Undy at Sydney's Point Light gallery, so this introduction was interesting and helps me appreciate them further. Thank you.

"My professional goal as an exploration geologist is the discovery of metal ores, so I find it fascinating to read that the limited supply of [native] platinum dug from [alluvial deposits] in Russia at first enabled and, later, nearly wiped out this art form. Now, most platinum and palladium comes from platinum arsenide and platinum sulfide, present at almost trace amounts (0.5 ppm, according to Wikipedia) in large tonnage nickel-copper sulfide deposits at the Merensky Reef, South Africa, at Norilsk in Russia and at Sudbury, Ontario, ensuring a consistent supply."

Comments

[Dave Karp]

I had the great opportunity to see the recent Irving Penn portrait exhibit at the Getty (www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/penn/index.html). The platinum prints were exquisite. Actually, their impact was profound.

He made multiple exposures by re-coating and re-exposing the paper with the same negative. The depth and feeling conveyed by these photographs is indescribable. The process gave even more gravity and dignity to the subjects in a way that truly enhanced Penn's treatment of the subjects.

Sometimes the exhibit showed silver gelatin versions of the same negative. Both were black and white, but the impact of the two methods was quite different.

[Doug Howk]

The platinum/palladium printing process is actually easier than many other alt processes (ie, Kallitypes). It can produce beautiful images with a surprising range of color from cool black/grey tones to very warm tones thru changes in sensitizer ratios and/or developer temperatures. More photographers should take the time/effort to learn this process.

[Bob Peterson]

Please avoid directly including photographs of nudes. My workplace will (probably) tolerate this one (I'm not going to ask), but I suspect others might be less tolerant.

Bob

[Mike Plews]

I love this thread.
My son is finishing the senior project for his BFA and it's made up of palladium prints.

[Bill Mitchell]

For 50 years, until George Tice took up the baton, platinum printing was virtually kept alive in the US by Laura Gilpin.

[Clayton Jones]

Really interesting article - thanks.

"1895–1905...Emerson in Britain and Stieglitz in America both declare gravure and platinum to be the only two processes suitable for artistic photography."

Photogravure always pops up in these histories of photo processes but is often given little emphasis. Stieglitz, in fact, loved it enough to master it himself (as did Emerson, Clarence White and others) and gave it a prominant place in "Camera Notes" and later in "Camera Work".

"The photogravures of Camera Notes were central to the identity, design, and reputation of the journal" (from "Alfred Stieglitz's Camera Notes", by Christian A. Peterson, page 36).

I mention this because our modern digital printing, being an ink process, is actually more closely related to photogravure than to the emulsion processes - the point being that ink-based photo printing is not a new phenomenon in the world of Fine Art photography.

Regards,
Clayton

Info on black and white digital printing at
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm
I-Trak 2.1 http://www.cjcom.net/itrak.htm

[WeeDram]

http://www.eastmanhouse.org/Main/events/detail/photo-workshop-7-2010

[Sal Santamaura]

"1911...Platinum printing is still the perceived high point of photographic procedures, but is rapidly losing ground to high-speed "gaslight" silver bromide enlarging papers..."

In 1911 wouldn't those have been silver *chloride* contact printing papers?

[glenn brown]

Rob and Sura from Paladio were kind enough to give me a hands on intro to platinum printing and Mike the platinum nude i sent you is on their paper. Glenn Brown.

[John Sartin]

Great read! There is nothing like a finely crafted platinum print. I will never forget walking into the MOPA in San Diego and seeing a wall of well lit platinum prints by Kenro Izu. In a room of great prints Kenro's prints virtually leapt of the wall. I have also had the privilege of holding prints made by Gary Auerbach in my own hands. There is just nothing like platinum and I am sure the prestige will only grow because the practitioners keep getting better and better.
http://www.kenroizu.com/
http://www.garyauerbach.com/

[Andrew Lamb]

I don't think I 'get' platinum prints.

I have just been to Hamilton's Gallery, in London, to see an exhibition of Irving Penn's portraits of traders. All the prints were platinum and, frankly, were disappointing to behold.

There were blown highlights, which was rather distracting, and the blacks were sooty or chalky. In contrast to some of the rich, glowing silver gelatin prints of Penn that are hanging in the concurrent Nation Portrait Gallery exhibition, the platinums seemed lacklustre. I also thought that the platinums, hanging at the NPG, were under-whelming.

I have read that platinum prints are incredibly difficult to produce and wonder if they are worth the effort? What am I missing?

[Carl Weese]

Andrew, Penn's platinum prints are really atypical. He stretches the medium to the limit to achieve his trademark ultra high contrast printing style, but most people who take up Pt/Pd printing are looking for the opposite effect: the extreme subtlety of tone that could be called the medium's trademark.

While people can and do make any process complicated, to make a direct contact print from an in-camera negative in Pt/Pd is about as simple and straightforward as a photographic process can get. In a few days I'll post a brief step by step description of the materials and methods used to produce the prints for the TOP print offer.

[Roger Bradbury]

The Loft at Kelmscott Manor by Frederick H. Evans reminds me of all those pictures in Arthur Mee's The Children's Encyclopedia
( http://wapedia.mobi/en/The_Children's_Encyclopedia )
and seems to have recorded a huge range of tones.

I'm off to the Isle of Wight on the 30th, and I hope to visit Julia Margaret Cameron's house Dimbola Lodge again, in between riding the motorcycle in the day, and drinking beer and talking nonsense at night.

[Joe Lipka]

I started pt/pd printing with Palladio paper. It was truly a wonderful product. Rob and Sura were a huge help in getting me started with this process. When Palladio stopped producing the paper, life became much more difficult. My hand coating techniques could never come close to the fine paper they produced.

[Andrew Lamb]

Carl,

Thanks for explaining the cause of my confusion!

[Bill Rogers]

Anyone who works with platinum should be aware of exposure precautions. Platinum salts can cause irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, and can lead to respiratory problems. The United States Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) has imposed a workplace limit of 0.002 milligrams per cubic meter of air, averaged over an eight-hour period.

Common-sense precautions include the use of impermeable gloves, such as latex or nitrile, and working in ventilated areas. Good personal hygiene should be observed - don't eat in the same area, don't touch the platinum and then touch your eyes, nose, or mouth, and cover skin lacerations with (dare I say it?) Band-Aids.

It's worth keeping in mind that cisplatin, a platinum complex, is used for cancer chemotherapy, with side effects of irreversible kidney damage and hearing loss.

Bill Rogers

[Adrian]

Maybe this is obvious, but the ability to print digitally on transparency material now makes it possible to make contact (including platinum) prints of arbitrarily large dimensions, without having to use huge cameras. A book (and website) I have found informative in this regard is "Digital Negatives" by Hinkel and Reeder.

[Carl Weese]

Bill, you don't often work with the dry salts. I might go a year or more on one batch of working solutions, but when making the batch from the dry salts gloves and good ventilation are of course necessary. Gloves should also be used when mixing the ferric oxalate solution. During the printing you don't want to have contact with either the coating solution or the developer, and you can use gloves or handling methods that keep your hands dry. Your warning against eating/drinking in the work area is great advice around *any* photographic chemicals.

Adrian, a print made from an enlarged negative is an enlargement, even if a contact printing process is used. Resolution, grain, and tonal transitions will be affected by the degree of enlargement involved. Many platinum printers have made wonderful prints from enlarged negatives done the old fashioned way, in the darkroom, and techniques to make digital enlarged negatives can result in very good prints, but they do not match the look of a direct contact print made from the in-camera negative.

[Dennis Allshouse]

Thanks to Clayton Jones for his comments about photogravure, specifically noting that it's an ink process like jet printing and consequently fundamentally different than gelatin silver or platinum. A worthwhile distinction to keep in mind, I think.

Note to Bob Peterson: I don't see where Mike is obliged to be considerate of anyone's at work surfing habits.

[Gavin McLelland]

As well as snapshot didn't Herschel coin "positive" and "negative". The portrait of him reminds of some of the Irving Penn portraits that were on display at National Gallery in London, head filling the frame and the heavy shadow.
Kelmscott Manor was one of the homes of William Morris one of the founders of the Arts & Craft Movement in the UK. Morris was also very interested in the preservation of ancient buildings - this may have drawn Evans, with his passion for ancient buildings to photograph the manor.

Gavin

[plevyadophy]

The one thing I am MOST interested in, or perhaps I should say concerned about, is the issue of disposal of chemicals.

In a domestic setting what is the appropriate means of disposal of the chemicals involved in the process of making these prints?

I don't imagine that it is appropriate to flush the stuff down the domestic plumbing?

I would be most grateful for any advice (and if the advice is country or atate specific, please indicate this; I will still be interested though).

Thanks in advance.

[Mike Johnston]

"I don't see where Mike is obliged to be considerate of anyone's at work surfing habits."

Even so, I make a real effort. I'm aware that some people object to Eolake's ad, and that's too bad, but Eolake has cooperated in not making the ad itself offensive to anyone. I want people to be able to visit the site from work or from schools. I do realize that we might not be perfectly worksafe and school friendly, but I do my best.

Mike

[Rod S.]

In recent years I've seen several beautiful platinum-palladium prints by Gordon Undy at Sydney's Point Light gallery, so this introduction was interesting and helps me appreciate them further. Thank you.

My professional goal as an exploration geologist is the discovery of metal ores, so I find it fascinating to read that the limited supply of [native] platinum dug from [alluvial deposits] in Russia at first enabled and, later, nearly wiped out this artform. Now, most platinum and palladium comes from platinum arsenide and platinum sulfide, present at almost trace amounts (0.5 ppm, according to Wikipedia) in large tonnage nickel-copper sulfide deposits at the Merensky Reef, South Africa, at Norilsk in Russia and at Sudbury, Ontario, ensuring a consistent supply.

[Carl Weese]

plevyadophy,

I am not a chemist, but here's what I understand about this. The platinum and palladium that go down the drain (most of it) are non-reactive noble metals that don't affect the environment. Except that my "stainless steel" sink keeps getting darker and darker. (It's being plated by palladium.)

Five grams of palladium salt (about what a few houseflies weigh) makes 55 ml of solution, and about 1.5 ml of that is used to make an 8x10 print. Only a little finds its way to the print, but the part that gets washed away really isn't dangerous.

The ferric oxalate, which is actually pretty toxic before use, is completely converted in the development process. It becomes, to put it simply, rust. Oxidized iron. That's washed away by the clearing process, which uses edta, a chelating agent that is also used as a food preservative. Not a panic inducing scenario. Compared to the amounts of hypo-complex compounds produced in silver printing, the platinum process is really very green. Like other products, if you do the full analysis, the extraction of the metals (mining) and the processing to give us a pure salt to buy, probably constitute almost all the environmental impact of making a platinum print.

[Dennis Ng]

@Carl: As a 8x10 photographer, really looking forward for your instruction. Do you mind to give your opinion to points a few posts raised here which reflect also the major issues I have to give it a try - how safe, how to deal with disposal and how easy. The last one is usual not an issue as you learn your waste a bit initially. Except you need quite a bit of $ for just 4 8x10 and it seems you have to experiment a lot.

Other than E6 Velvia Slide, I like black and white contact print. It is demanding (as you have to give the negative basically right) but easy (as you do not have much options and hence you cannot and do not have to do much).

In the history of photography and as of now, just wonder what are the good options for those who like to contact print and not just scan with V700 and ink jet print. Reading those web site for more than 1 year now and still not sure. Silver Cl/AZO type, Pt/Pd, ...

[plevyadophy]

@Carl Wesse

Thank you VERY much for that education. You have given me valuable information.

However, I am still a little nervous about the process.

I note for example, the dangers/safety precautions outlined by Bill Rogers in his post above as well as in this excellent article on platinum prints: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/platinum.shtml

I would dearly love to give this type of printing a go, but the health and safety as well as environmental issues cause me some concern.

I would appreciate your comments and advice (and the same from other readers too).

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

[Robin Dreyer]

You guys left out one further milestone in this history (perhaps out of modesty on Carl's part). The development, by Richard Sullivan and Carl Weese, of the Ziatype--an updated version of Pizzighelli's printing-out process. The Ziatype is palladium based and so technically not a platinum print, but given that most "platinum" prints are made with a combination of platinum and palladium, it would seem valid to include it in this timeline.

The Ziatype is a beautiful and flexible process that creates the same visual qualities as conventional plantium/palladium techniques, although it does require some attention to humidity. You can find lots of information on the Bostick and Sullivan website: http://www.bostick-sullivan.com

[Carl]

Nice chronology guys, thank you. The Stieglitz/Keiley glycerine method for platinum (1901 or so?) seems worth mentioning alongside gum printing.

I'd be interested in a post about "The Photo Boom"