[alt-photo] Questions Pertaining to the Differences and Similarities of Salted Paper Printing (silver-chloride) and Papers Like Azo

[Francesco Fragomeni]

Hi all,

My fascination with handmade alternatives to the old Azo continues and
while slowly I am surely learning (often thanks to many of you).

>From what I understand, Azo was basically a salted paper (silver-chloride)
formula made with high quality ingredients. I'm away from my studio and
darkroom for an extended time and haven't yet figured out a way
to experiment with all of this where I am so I'm hoping to learn from some
of your experiences. I plan to experiment with various silver-chloride
based formulas that I've come across. Many are gelatin-emulsion based
formula but I'm curious to see if they can be made into solution and coated
like a traditional salt print (I'm also fascinated with coating onto
fixed-out silver paper which I do have instructions for that supposedly
work). Anyway, for those who do traditional salt printing, I understand
that it is a printing out process but can anyone tell me if it can be
exposed to form a latent image and then developed in Amidol to produce a
print? The components of a traditional salt print are nearly the same as
the components of the commercial silver-chloride papers of the past
(including Azo) so I imagine that they could be treated similarly. Or
perhaps this is common knowledge and I'm just behind the curve. Can any of
the salt printers here shed some light on this for me please.

Thanks so much!

-Francesco Fragomeni
www.francescofragomeni.com