Platinotype and Cyanotype Print Making

 

At Albuquerque's Main Library I found a  book devoted to the collection of Paul Strand's work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  In that was the mention of Strand's technique of enlarging negatives from Graflex medium format negatives for the purpose of enabling the production of bigger 8x10 contact prints.  That is the same process Edward Weston used throughout his career, which I had found puzzling as Weston's account is lacking in detail. The book revealed the full explanation, which is that both photographers early in their careers were making platinum (platinotype) prints. Those could only be made as contact prints as production of the positive image required exposure to ultraviolet light, available then only from the sun.

So, platinum printing is similar to the cyanotype process in that both are often undertaken by coating the paper manually shortly before rather lengthy exposure to ultraviolet. There is also some similarity in developing the exposed images.  The cyanotype images are developed simply by washing in water.  This is also true of some platinum prints, though it seems those are more commonly developed in chemical solutions.  Additional processing variations include treatments of specialty papers and additives to the developing solutions including mercury.

Both platinum and cyanotype prints can be rendered in a variety of tints.  Cyanotype prints are most often blue tinted, but they can also be produced with sepia tones by adding a mild acidic solution.

An excellent description of the platinum printing process can be found on the website of the National Gallery of Art.

Strand, Stieglitz, and Weston made their enlarged internegatives on glass plates for the purpose of getting prints.  A simpler process now available is to create a large digital image and then print that out on clear plastic sheets normally used in overhead projectors. I have used that technique with some of my cyanotypes with images coming from my medium format cameras.

The making of platinum prints has always been technically challenging and costly.  The current economic situation can only exacerbate that.  Cyanotypes are still easy and relatively cheap to make.  It is even possible to get pre-coated cyanotype paper; I have found it in a couple museum gift shops, usually marketed as suitable for teaching children about the print making process.

 A few of my cyanotypes:

what's up

I've spent the last week making cyanotype contact prints from old medium format negatives.

I'm using pre-coated cyanotype paper from a couple little packets I picked up in museum gift shops that are usually promoted as a craft project for children.  The paper is kind of flimsy, but it makes pretty good images with a couple of minutes exposure on a sunny day.  The paper is only sensitive to ultraviolet light, so the sandwich of cardboard backing, paper, negative and plastic cover sheet can be assembled in subdued room light.

I like the small prints, and they don't take up much room in a small house with limited wall and shelf space.  I've also enjoyed the process of finding small frames for the prints at local thrift stores.  I have tried toning a few prints with green tea to yield a brownish image, but need to work at that a bit more to get the proper contrast.

I last made cyanotypes about twelve years ago.  I coated watercolor paper using a two-component cyanotype kit.  I was able to make large prints through the use of digital inter-negatives printed on Pictorico overhead transparency material.  That whole process gave me a lot of control in making prints, but it requires a good digital printer which I no longer have.  Contact printing requires relatively little space and equipment, and I'll probably pursue it further, possibly with other alternative media.

Charles Fletcher Lummis

I walked over to the Albuquerque Museum this morning for a second look at a currently featured exhibit: Time Exposure; Picturing a History of the Isleta Pueblo in the 19th Century.



The show's highlight for me was an introduction to the work of C.F. Lummis, a journalist and editor, as well as a very accomplished early photographer of the Southwest. His prints do not have the technical sophistication of those from contemporaries like Vroman and Curtis, but they display great intimacy and authenticity due to the fact that Lummis lived for several years in the Isleta Pueblo, and the people portrayed were his friends. Lummis learned Spanish and Tiwa in the Pueblo, and he became a champion of Native American rights.

Most of the Lummis pictures in the exhibit are big enlargements from the original prints, most of which were blue-toned cyanotypes. Two exquisite original cyanotype contact prints were only visible under a glass case which contained an album he had assembled from his work in the late 1880s at Isleta.

Finding examples of Lummis' work on line is a challenge. They don't show up in search engine results because they are mostly contained within museum and library collections which can only be accessed through quirky institutional interfaces. The largest number of Lummis prints appear to be at the Autry National Center of the American West in Los Angeles. Below is a small selection of Lummis prints accessed through the site's "Research" tab.

Cyanotype

I've recently begun making cyanotype prints of some of my favorite images on watercolor paper. The cyanotype process is an antique print making technique which uses light sensitive iron salts in place of the more common silver gelatin. The cyanotype emulsion is hand painted on the paper, which is then sandwiched together with a negative and exposed to the sun for a minute to produce a contact print.  Development and fixing of the Prussian blue image is accomplished with a few minutes wash in slightly acidified water.