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3 PRINTING PROCESSES: OLD MEETS NEW

Excerpt from Black and White Magazine Issue...
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MINDFUL OF A DEGREE OF HESITANCY AND CONCERN AMONG COLLECTORS WHEN IT COMES TO THE LONGEVITY OF PRINTS PRODUCED BY DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY, WE ASKED SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR RICHARD PITNICK TO TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THREE PROCESSES NOW AVAILABLE TO PRINT MAKERS -- TWO FEATURING REFINEMENTS OF OLD TECHNIQUES, AND ONE THAT SEEKS TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN THE OLD AND THE NEW.

With the advent of a sustained and thriving market for fine art photography, collectors and artists have struggled in recent decades to balance the ever-evolving dynamic between technique, art and commerce that is unique to the photographic medium.

Where photographers continue to seek out new imaging techniques to enhance the creative and conceptual capabilities of the medium, particularly in regard to digital, they do so at the risk of their viability in the marketplace, which continues to place a high premium on archival work that displays an allegiance to the traditions of fine art photography.

For collectors inclined toward new modes of creative photographic expression, primarily as they relate to digital, there remains a degree of hesitancy investing in work of uncertain permanence and questionable significance in terms of its legitimacy within the art market.

As a result of this effort to reconcile the conflict between art and commerce, a divergent yet complementary image-making renaissance has emerged, with artists either adapting digital imaging to traditional darkroom practices, or adopting antiquarian photographic processes in order to reconnect with the "craft"of photography and find validation within the collectors market.

THE PLATINUM PRINT

Long regarded as the finest expression of photographic printmaking, platinum printing has remained the medium of choice for collectors and artists who value both the permanence of platinum, as well as the wonderful aesthetics that make a platinum print a true art object in and of itself.

"A well made platinum print has a unique aesthetic and presence that is more than photographic," says Allen McKinney, a master printer for more than 25 years, who combines old-world craftsmanship with modern technology to produce platinum prints of exceptional beauty. "I find them to be very much alive and almost three-dimensional, and I haven't found an image I didn't think looked more beautiful on platinum."

Working with a proprietary process that includes a special blending of platinum/palladium and print developer, as well as precise control of temperature and humidity in the developing process, McKinney produces prints that transcend the usual expectations. The printer's achievement in platinum printing, creating images with exceptional blacks, maximum shadow and midtone separation, subtle highlights, and an extended tonal range, is a result of a combination of meticulous, hand-crafted artistry, and state-of-the art digital technology.

Working from any type of original image source,whether black and white or color negative, trans parency or print, McKinney begins the elaborate print-making process by creating a high-resolution digital scan. "I then use the computer to do extensive masking to separate the tones," he explains. "I usually divide the films into different tonal values, and I may use three or four films per image and that many exposures."

Once the final negatives are created, McKinney makes a traditional contact print, using a vacuum frame for precise registration of the different negatives. The thick, hand-coated archival cotton paper used by McKinney is exposed using an ultra-high UV 5000 watt light source. Like all platinum prints, each image will have subtle variations in color, tone and contrast.

It can take up to two weeks for McKinney to produce a single print, depending on the complexity of the image and the desires and expectations of the artists with whom he works closely throughout the entire process.

While acknowledging the cost and labor intensive nature of his process, McKinney believes the result offers an unparalleled aesthetic experience for the artist and collector. "Platinum is a very beautiful process, capable of producing a full range of density, tonality and contrast," says McKinney. "A fine platinum print glows with a luminosity and gentle warmth. From its deepest shadows to its delicate highlights it will have a much greater tonal range than a gelatin silver print.

"By taking this archaic 19thcentury platinum/palladium printing process, and coupling it with 21st-century technology, the result is an exceptional, luminous print that fully expresses the artist's vision. But even with the technological advances available today, producing a successful platinum/palladium print is an art, not a science." Allen McKinney can be contacted at www.allenmckinney.com

McKinney's prints are made with a heavy-weight, archival cotton paper imported from France. His use of multiple coatings, films, and exposures yield prints with maximum shadow and mid-tone separation, subtle highlights, and an extended tonal range. Each image is initially proofed as a PDF file showing general content, image size and position. McKinney then makes a 4x5 platinum trial proof print showing tonality and color. Finally, a full-size image is made, which becomes the reference print for the entire edition.

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