Palladio

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Kerik717@aol.com
Date: 06/25/01-03:11:49 PM Z


> I hate to sound like a cynic, but I have to ask
> you why would you be excited.
> I've never used their product but from most
> of the reviews I have read their paper was
> lacking in uniformity, was expensive, and
> apparently the market rejected it.

Don, if I believed every movie review I read, I'd never go to the movies! Nothing like a little hands-on to help make your own decisions. I for one would like to see a machine-made platinum paper like Palladio come back on the market. What do you think Frederick Evans et al, printed on 100 years ago? To my knowledge, there were very few, if any, hand-coaters back then simply because it wasn't necessary. They went to their local photo-shop and had a wide variety of platinum papers to choose from. Hand-coating came along when there was no alternative (pardon the pun!) and people wanted to replicate the results that Kodak and other manufacturers had provided previously. (Somewhere I have a Kodak price list for platinum paper from about 1908. I think 10 sheets of 8x10 was about $2.00. Anybody know how that converts to 2001 dollars??)

I did use Palladio quite a bit when I was first testing the alt-waters over 10 years ago. While I soon went on to hand-coating exclusively, Palladio paper was very capable of very high quality prints and the results I got with it were really what drew me deeper into the alt-arena. When I started teaching workshops about 5 years ago, I would begin the workshop with everyone making a small platinum print on Palladio. The quick feedback REALLY got people excited about what they were about to learn. After teaching roughly 100 people to print platinum over the last few years, my experience is that a relatively small percentage take the full leap and commitment to hand-coated platinum printing or other alt-processes. Many workshop attendees are simply there to learn something new and decide if it's a path they want to take with their work. I'm pretty sure that there are quite a few of those that would use a machine-coated paper to make platinum prints on occaision when the mood str!
uck them or they made an image o
r series of images that would be best presented that way. I see nothing wrong with that. Just another tool to get work done. What counts in my opinion is the final piece of art, not the "lookie-what-I-did" factor.

My understanding from Sura Steinberg was that the struggle they had toward the end was getting the paper base made to their specifications. The mill they had used for years was bought by a much bigger company that didn't see enough profit to justify meeting their strict production requirements. I believe that was much more of a contributing factor to the demise of Palladio than the paper being "rejected by the market".

Yes, Palladio paper was expensive and yes it changed several times over the years, mostly for the better in my opinion. I was saddened to hear when they finally pulled the plug because I think it's for our common good to have companies like Palladio, B&S, Artcraft Chemicals, First Reaction, etc. around to provide a variety of tools for our craft and to spread the alt-process word. Most of the criticism I've heard about Palladio over the years has come from "Holy Grail" type printers who think their way is The Way. Who wants to listen to them anyway???

My best wishes to Sura and the folks at Palladio. I hope they find a way to get their product back on the market. If anyone thinks it's not "alt" enough, fine - don't buy it!

Kerik Kouklis
www.Kerik.com


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