The Platinum & Palladium Print

Platinum & palladium prints have long been recognized as the most exquisite as well as the most archival of the photographic printing processes. They are made by hand, one print at a time. In recent years, with the appreciation of photography as an art and the accelerating value of photographs to collectors, platinum & palladium prints are experiencing a renaissance among fine art photographers. A fine platinum & palladium print glows with a luminosity and gentle warmth. From it's deepest shadows to it's delicate highlights it will have a much greater tonal range than a silver-gelatin print. The platinum & palladium print presents an almost three-dimensional image. Landscapes and still lifes have a stunning radiance, and portraits peer back from the print, as if alive.

Platinum & palladium images are not only exceptionally beautiful but are among the most permanent graphic images. The platinum & palladium metals are as stable as gold. Where a color photograph may last only a few years before it begins to fade and a silver-gelatin print can visibly change within one's lifetime, the platinum & palladium print will last many hundreds, or even thousands, of years.

A wide array of printing processes have been used in the almost two hundred years since the beginning of photography, but platinum & palladium prints have always had a special place as the medium of choice for many of the greatest photographers, including Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Edward Weston, and Irving Penn. They preferred platinum & palladium - in spite of its extra labor and expense - for their most personal and treasured images.

I have taken this archaic 19th-century platinum & palladium printing process, coupled it with a late 20th-century development, added 21st-century technology and expertise so that the result is an exceptional, luminous print that fully expresses the artist's vision. In the tradition of a hand-pulled artisan press, I work collaboratively with the artist in creating the edition.I use exacting pre-print work, as well as multiple hand-coatings, films, and exposures, to achieve maximum shadow and mid-tone separation, subtle highlights, and an extended tonal range. I employ a heavy weight, archival, cotton paper imported from France, and I curate each print before it leaves the studio. To honor the completed work, I can provide complete documentation of each edition.