[alt-photo] Re: Pt/Pd printing Video

[Judy Seigel]

Aside from Diana's very cogent points is perhaps the fact that, presumably 
at least, world supply of platinum is finite, perhaps diminished enough to 
justify the cost....  Then think how much of the remaining supply gets 
flushed down the drain in making a print.  (Does anyone feel guilty 
yet???) And what if it's a really STUPID print?  (OK, I won't go there.)

As I understand it, dichromate, on the other hand, is made from plentiful 
chemicals... The evil there, of course, is poisoning by way of the runoff 
water... Tho I recall Mike Ware's explanation that in a large body of 
water, the dichromate breaks down into a relatively harmless 3rd party of 
some sort, and I was assured by the water department in NYC that the 
amounts I (and all my students at the time) used were trivial (he actually 
laughed) -- in a city where 7 million (or like that) toilets flush every 
minute.

(The "captain" asked how much we used, I estimated that my students and I 
probably used maybe a pound a year... He said, as I recall, that they're 
dealing with air conditioning systems that use something like a pound 
every 45 minutes.)

Where chemicals of this order would be quite serious, though, would 
presumably be in small towns that have private ... I forget what you call 
them: a cistern is a private well of water, the thing I'm forgetting is 
the private waste water pit. Cess pool?  (We had one of those in the house 
I was born in on Long Island... but I wasn't doing gum at the time.)

J.

On Thu, 29 Apr 2010, Diana Bloomfield wrote:

> Well, I think beginners probably should shy away from the process.  I do 
> think pt/pd is an inordinately expensive process, and not all that 
> satisfying, really (for me, anyway).  I stopped platinum printing, for the 
> most part, because I never felt I could raise my prices enough to offset the 
> costs, or to make it worth my while.  I also found most people (unless 
> knowledgeable photographers or collectors) didn't really care about whether 
> something was a platinum print or not, and had no idea what you were talking 
> about when you said it was a platinum print.  You can educate people, of 
> course, but in the end-- honestly-- I don't think anybody much cares. I've 
> printed some of my same images in other processes, and no one was ever put 
> off that it wasn't a platinum print.  Maybe it was my printing ability (or 
> lack of?), but I think people mostly appreciated the other processes more. 
> It really is expensive, and heaven forbid if you're prone to making mistakes. 
> Not that I am, of course, but I have heard that people do--you know-- make 
> mistakes.
>
> Diana