The Platinum Print

From the mid to late 19 th , through to the early 20 th century one of the popular photographic printing processes, even predating silver gelatine, was the platinum print.  As the price of platinum soared during WWI and WW2 the process drifted out of practice.  Then beginning in the 1970’s creating platinum prints using the traditional methods was re-established by a small number of specialists.   Today it remains consigned to the relative obscurity of an “alternative process”.    I think 2 factors contribute to keeping platinum printing at its current level of (un)popularity.  Compared to inkjet (or even traditional darkroom prints) a platinum print is relatively expensive.  A 25ml bottle of platinum solution runs about $200.  I estimate that exposing an 8x10 negative and printing on 11x14 paper runs about $12 - $13.   Second, there is no silver bullet for learning the process.  It’s truly a craft that has to be learned by experience.  It took me about 6 months and almost 100 prints ...