[Alt-photo] Re: Papers for Palladium

[Diana Bloomfield]

Well, speaking of platinum prints lasting 500 years--  I was at this little junk-- uh-- antique store late this afternoon, looking for something very specific, and I almost tripped over a framed photograph on the floor, propped up against the wall.  I take a closer look, and it turns out to be a platinum/palladium print-- really nice-- great light, composition, good tonal range-- the whole thing.  It was in a crappy metal frame with a dirty mat-- but the print (about 12x12) was pristine and gorgeous.  I could not make out the handwriting on who did it-- but the price tag was an astounding $14.  Seriously.  So I look a little longer, and way up high on the wall-- is another platinum/palladium print made by the same person-- same location -- just different scene-- also really nicely done, brush-marks and all-- in a nice wood frame-- but still a dirty mat-- but because of the wood frame, I guess, it was a shocking $22.  So I got them both.  I got home, thinking maybe they weren't pt/pd prints at all, but some computer-generated something or other-- but I took them out of their frames, and sure enough-- they're the real thing.  I can't make out the signature, though.  They're contemporary prints, probably done in the last 20 years or so-- but I couldn't find a date, either.

But talk about your worst nightmare.  The good news is, they weren't mine.  I was thrilled by that.  But 500 years?  I'm just hoping when I kick, my family doesn't dump everything in boxes and send them off to the nearest junk-- uh-- antique store.  :(

Diana


On Nov 6, 2013, at 6:46 PM, francis schanberger wrote:

> When I coat a 9" x 12" piece of Tosa washi, I usually have three
> overlapping "rows" moving from right to left. When I finish the third row,
> I begin brushing from the far side bottom to top or from closest to me to
> furthest from me. Usually there are four of these "columns". The unsized
> paper will allow the chemistry to spread to the neighboring column or row.
> It works well enough for a camera based image. For one of my scanner based
> botanicals, the sheer surface area needed to be the densest is when this
> brushing technique fails. For these images, I double coat with the paper
> rotated 180 degrees.
> 
> Coating must be done with the paper on top of felt just like Japanese and
> Chinese calligraphy.
> 
> Nishimaru and the paper makers opted for the thin weight to make the paper
> as archival as possible (easy to wash out the iron salts). They are calling
> platinum prints on this paper, 500 year photographs.
> 
>