VIEW CAMERA January / February 1994

The platinum process holds a very special place in the universe of photography, both historically and aesthetically. As early as 1804 a worker named Galen is said to have discussed the action of light on platinum salts. In 1831, Sir John Herschel demonstrated the ability of certain platinum salts in the presence of certain organic compounds to exhibit photoreactive qualities. At the same time, Herschel demonstrated the ability of hyposulphate of soda to dissolve the salts of platinum and silver while not affecting the respective metals. Here are the documented fundamentals of photography that predate Daguerre and Talbot, but using platinum salts instead of silver. A year earlier, chemist Johann Wolfgang Doebereiner discovered the light sensitive qualities of ferric oxalate, making possible the development of numerous processes such as Cyanotype, Kallitype, and Platinotype. Because of Herschels' love for research at the expense of practical results, and the competitive enthusiasm of workers like Daguerre and Talbot to demonstrate a workable photographic process, silver salts got top billing, despite their technical shortcomings. Robert Hunt, in 1844, described experiments where he coated papers with a mixture of platinum salts and ferric oxalate which when dried darkened on exposure to light. It was left to William Willis to realize the need for, and discover a workable method for, developing the platinum image after exposure, and he was awarded his first patent for a workable platinum printing process on June 5, 1873. In 1979, Willis formed the Platinotype Company. He began marketing his pre-coated papers in 1880. Taking his cue from Daguerre's marketing practices with his Daguerreotypes, Willis sold licenses to photographers wanting to use his process, and then sold them the materials. The platinum process was given freely to the world in 1882 by two Austrian Army officers, Giuseppe Pizzighelli and Baron Author von Hubl, who further refined the process and showed photographers how to prepare and coat their own platinum papers -- much to the chagrin of the Platinotype Company. The process had remained basically unchanged until 1986 with the research done by Mike Ware, a PhD chemist/printmaker from England who has come up with some really new methods and chemistries to make platinum prints. Platinum printing enjoyed a fantastic following, from the introduction of commercially coated platinum papers by Willis and Clements of Philedelphia in 1880 until thje 1930s when pre-coated papers became unobtainable. At the Photographic Society Exhibition of London in 1894, 175 out of the 382 prints shown were platinotypes. A great many of the important photographers of the early 1900s were aficionados of platinum printing. Stieglitz himself referred to platinum as the "prince of media." Platinum has always been expensive relative to silver, usually by a factor of about 50 to 1. Because the price of precious metals increases disproportionately during times of war, by 1915 the price of platinum had risen to the point that it was becoming economically unfeasible to offer pre-coatedf papers in platinum. Because of this, the Willis company offered a lower priced alternative paper using silver salts called "Satista", which was a Kallitype paper. Silver has a different response ot light, the prints have a different look, and Frederick Evans, one of the most respected photographer/platinum printers, quit photography.