Platinum photogreaphers

[Pascal Quint]

After a long break I am getting back to platinum printing. Two questions:

Who are the really interesting photographers working in platinum today. So much platinum work seems to be being done by people who are primarily master printers, but the photography seems to be just a re-working of themes and styles which were in many ways worn out two or three generations ago - characterise by peeling paint, forest or desert scenes and hats or skulls on adobe walls.

Who is doing the really interesting work in this medium now? The different work?

Secondly. Digitally enlarged negatives really seem the way to go today from what I have seen - from 4x5 and 8x10. What's the feeling on this. It seems by far the most flexible option now?

[John Sarsgard]

I print in Pt/Pd mostly from digitally enlarged negatives, and so do many others. However, contact prints from in camera negs are definitely alive and well, and I would never say that enlarged negs do just as good a job. Check out precisiondigitalnegatives.com for sure. Mark Nelson has a great (albeit a little complicated) system for creating digital negs that you calibrate to process, paper, printer, etc. But remember that if you enlarge a lot, the Pt/Pd print is going to look like an enlargement! Which is perfectly acceptable for some of the work I do, so I do it. My 11x14s or slightly larger from 4x5 scanned and enlarged negs are hard to tell from results from in camera negs. Same size from 35mm or 645 look good, but like enlargements. No free lunch, but lots of good options.

Check out David Michael Kennedy, Carl Weese, Dick Arentz, Kerik Kouklis, others. Look at their links and the next generation of links and you will find some good work.

[David Vickery]

What has not been photographed many times over??

[Jim Rhoades]

Check out Tillman Crane. He has two books, Structure and Touchstones. Yeah, some peeling paint.

[Jerry Flynn]

As far as I know, Irving Penn and George Tice rediscovered the platinum process simultaneously around 1970. Tice got permission to obtain the documentation from the British chancellery that supported the original patent for platinotypes. It's interesting that Tice and Penn do not get much mention when people talk about platinum printers. Neither is a practitioner of the western landscape/peeling paint school you mention.

I'd also recommend looking into the work of Kenro Izu - his silk road, sacred places and still life images are all exquisite examples of platinum printing.

[Bill_1856]

Laura Gilpin kept platinum printing alive from the time that commercial paper became unavailable until Tice and others resurected it after the War.