re: archivalness of gum
Diana, I am not sure how much time it took to transfer, but it seemed like it was decades. Also, it was a faint ghost of an image, and I would wager a bet that even with the transfer of some of the metal to paper in contact, a platinum print is still way up there in archivalness, in the same category as carbon and gum. If one thinks about it, look at BW paper--I've seen Becher Typology Water Towers hanging on the walls of the Walker in Mpls that already were showing brown spots and silvering out and such. And then think of albumen prints that turn yellow with time. One reason gum printing was so exciting in the beginning was that it was an answer to the fading of silver nitrate based prints at that time--people wanted something that had more permanence than what they were finding in a few short years was fading. Luckily I xeroxed those discussions from the early 1860's when gum and carbon came on the horizon. There is no silver to fade or fox or spot, just pigment and gum and paper and very little dichromate left. Well, and now some sodium hypochlorite in Marek's prints :) So by comparison, so I thought, gum, carbon and platinum were the best. OH, and guess what--if the gum layer is on top of the pt/pd print, it would prevent the ghosting from occurring by acting as a barrier to the paper in contact with the print, so in fact it should HELP with any shortcomings pt/pd may have! Chris Christina Z. Anderson Assistant Professor Photo Option Coordinator Montana State University Box 173350 Bozeman, MT 59717 406.994.6219 CZAphotography.com
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