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Course: Special topics in art history > Unit 2
Lesson 11: Photographs- Seeing Through Photographs
- Before Photography - Photographic Processes Series - Chapter 1 of 12
- The Daguerreotype - Photographic Processes Series - Chapter 2 of 12
- Talbot's Processes - Photographic Processes Series - Chapter 3 of 12
- The Collodion - Photographic Processes Series - Chapter 5 of 12
- The Albumen Print - Photographic Processes Series - Chapter 6 of 12
- The Platinum Print - Photographic Processes Series - Chapter 7 of 12
- The Pigment Processes - Photographic Processes Series - Chapter 8 of 12
- The Woodburytype - Photographic Processes Series - Chapter 9 of 12
- The Gelatin Silver Process - Photographic Processes Series - Chapter 10 of 12
- An Introduction to Photography in the Early 20th Century
- Color Photography - Photographic Processes Series - Chapter 11 of 12
- Digital Photography - Photographic Processes Series - Chapter 12 of 12
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The Platinum Print - Photographic Processes Series - Chapter 7 of 12
The platinum print, invented in 1873, is a matte finish, black-looking print that was created to elevate photography as a fine art. It involves brushing chemistry onto paper, creating a unique effect. The process is expensive and uses noble metals like platinum. The resulting prints are very permanent and don't fade.
Video 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.