Platinum and palladiums

Platinum and Palladium print (Pt/Pd) by Sergio Devecchi

Stains on Platinum / Palladium prints? A possible solution

Sergio Devecchi, a member of the Namias group in Italy, has worked with alternative printing processes since the 80s. Sergio finds mysterious yellow stains on his prints. He investigates the problem thoroughly, experiments and comes up with a solution. Writer and photography / Sergio Devecchi Some days ago I removed a photo print from the frame, both the glass and the Passepartout are acid-free material from the 90s and surprisingly … Read more

Preparation & use for Siderotypes: Cyanotype, Vandyke Brown, Argyrotype, Ziatype, and the silver halide process of B&W silver gelatin v.1.5

The Special Edition Art Project was created to afford photographers and artists practical access to the creation of wet-processed photographic prints. This photographic processes user guide focusses instruction on classic B&W silver gelatin printmaking as well as the historic light-sensitive iron based Siderotypes processes of Cyanotype (iron), Vandyke Brownprint, aka VDB, (silver / gold), Argyrotype (silver / gold), and Ziatype (palladium / gold / tungsten / platinum). Writer and photography / … Read more

Siderotype Paper Survey: Cyanotype, Vandyke Brownprint, Ziatype v1.0

This detailed paper survey is the Special Edition Art Project effort to document how papers behave when paired with historic Siderotype processes used in our coastal California working environment. The Siderotype processes Cyanotype (iron), Vandyke Brownprint (silver) aka VDB, and Ziatype (palladium / gold / tungsten / platinum) are the focus of this survey, creating an assessment of a paper’s image density across exposure corrections, amount and type of grain, … Read more

The palladium and platinum salts, Part 3: The Recipes and Bibliography

Jean-Claude Mougin shares his text on Palladium in 3 parts, Part 1: The Object, Part 2: The Technique and Part 3: The Recipes and Bibliography (this article). Writer and photography / Jean-Claude Mougin Read the previous article The palladium and platinum salts, Part 2: The Technique WARNING The Platino-Palladiotype process involves chemicals which should be regarded as potentially harmful. It is the responsibility of everyone who decides to work with … Read more

Palladium mougin

The palladium and platinum salts, Part 2: The Technique

Jean-Claude Mougin shares his text on Palladium in 3 parts, The palladium and platinum salts, Part 1: The Object, Part 2: The Technique (this article) and The palladium and platinum salts, Part 3: The Recipes and Bibliography (coming soon). Writer and photography / Jean-Claude Mougin Read the previous article The palladium and platinum salts, Part 1: The Object Note from the author: the ✌, sign refers to a personal interpretation … Read more

Palladium mougin

The palladium and platinum salts – Part 1: The Object

Jean-Claude Mougin shares his text on Palladium in 3 parts, The palladium and platinum salts, Part 1: The Object (this article), The palladium and platinum salts, Part 2: The Technique and Part 3: The Recipes and Bibliography. Writer and photography / Jean-Claude Mougin The substance of art is not substance The matter of art is not matter The subject of art is not the subject The object of art is … Read more

Palladium triplet by Roger Kockaerts

Roger Kockaerts makes Palladium triplets: The World of Random Nucleation

Roger Kockaerts explains his way of working with Palladium prints to create his beautiful abstract prints. Writer and photography / Roger Kockaerts The different chemical baths used in photography are mostly constituted by dry crystals of different chemical origin diluted in water in order to obtain a colorless liquid. These transparent baths offer a rather monotonous vision in their plastic scales as long as the water content remains sufficiently high. … Read more

Fumed silica figure 1 detail

Improve your Siderotypes with fumed silica pre-treatment

Fumed Silica treatment can improve details in your Siderotypes, but be careful, it’s not chemistry without risk as Giorgio Bordin tells us. Writer and photography / Giorgio Bordin Fumed Silica, as it’s commonly said, (CAS 112945-52-5) is also known as pyrogenic silica because it is produced in a flame. It consists of an extremely fine white powder made of microscopic droplets of amorphous silica (viz not crystalline), fused and branched … Read more

Sarah van Keuren

A Non-Silver Manual: Palladium

The chapter called “Palladium” of Sarah Van Keuren’s book “A Non-Silver Manual: Cyanotype, Vandyke Brown, Palladium & Gum Bichromate with instructions for making light-resists including pinhole photography”.

Gary shooting a portrait on the 10×8 camera that he takes with him on his travels.

Platinotype printmaking

Gary Auerbach recounts the personal journey that led to his discovery of the platinotype printmaking process 20 years ago, and outlines a simple technique for making your own prints using this archival and very beautiful process.

Ziatype print. Floodwaters by Carl Weese.

The ziatype process

An extract from Christina Z. Anderson’s book Alternative Processes Condensed, which includes a lot more information on several alternative processes.

Figure 2: Development by the Push Rod Method.

Satista prints

A description of the Satista photographic print process by Marek Matusz.

platinum and palladium

The platino-palladiotype process

The following method of printing in platinum, palladium, or a mixture of both metals, has been evolved to overcome the difficulties and disadvantages of the traditional platinotype.

Laura Blacklow handpainted photograph

Glossary of Terms

This is the glossary of Terms for Taylor Whitney’s article ‘The platinum print: a catalyst for discussion’.