Recently, a new generation of American and British photographers have been reviving platinum printing, a historic black-and-white process favoured by the early 20th century artists.
The great American photographer Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) once referred to platinum printing processes as "the prince of all media." Mostly American photographers including Imogen Cunningham (1883-1876), and Edward Weston (1886-1958) worked in the medium.
Although the platinum process was widely used early in in the 20th century, but fell out of favour owing to the difficulty of arranging platinum supplies from Russia after WWII.
The technique consists of carefully measuring and dissolving platinum, palladium or iridium metals into a special solution. The normally hand made paper is then coated in this light-sensitive emulsion with a special brush. The paper is then carefully dried. Printing is done by exposing the paper with UV light throuigh a contact negative, and wetting and re drying. This is a costly and complicated procedure, each print taking almost eight hours to complete.
In comparison to regular black-and-white prints - known as silver prints - platinum prints exhibit an expanded tonal range, heightened detail, and an unparralleled luminousity.
Our prints are created with love by Max & Paul Caffell of 31 Studio from the original negatives under direct supervision of the Bill Brandt Archive.
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