Erin
There is nothing quite like the glow of a genuine platinum print – it is simultaneously gentle and powerful, it is subtle yet rich and luxurious, and it has a physical presence like no other type of photograph.
Platinum is one of the most stable metals there is, and prints made with it are famously long-lived. If a platinum print has been well made then it will last as long as the paper it is made on. It will not fade, it will not discolour, it will not age. So a platinum print made today could well be in perfect condition when your grandchildren’s grandchildren are looking at it.
Platinum was one of the early photographic processes and was very popular with fine art photographers before the Great War. But the increasing cost of platinum during the war coupled with the rise of silver gelatin printing meant that it had pretty much disappeared by the mid-1920s. Thankfully, in the ’70s and ’80s a number of photographers (Irving Penn in particular) started researching how to make these fabulous prints, and the process was rescued.
Today platinum printing is undergoing something of a renaissance – no doubt partly as a reaction against the mass produced, machine-made imagery which has flooded the fine art photography market. Demand for prints is high from collectors, galleries and photographers although there are still relatively few people who have the skill to make really fine platinum prints.
I made my first platinum print five or six years ago, and soon afterwards decided to concentrate exclusively on this beautiful medium. I find working with platinum deeply rewarding. There’s something wonderful about working slowly, carefully applying the platinum coating to the paper by hand, exposing it to UV light through giant negatives, and then processing and cleaning the final print with various chemicals and washes. An individual print may take hours or sometimes even days of work to get just right, but when it finally gets there I feel great.
I hope that platinum continues to grow as a medium, and new generations of photographers keep pushing its boundaries so that people can continue to enjoy platinum prints for many years to come.