ALL

T H AT
GLITTERS
IS
NOT
GOLD

Gold one of the most precious metals

is often considered the standard to
which other valuables are compared. In
the medium of photography, however,
many consider the platinum process to
be the most exquisite.

Expensive to produce, platinum prints (and their close cousin, palladium

prints) are coveted for their velvet matte surface, subtle range of tones,
delicate rendering of the image, and colors which vary from cool greys
to warm, rich browns.
Patented in 1873, the platinum process has been used nearly
continuously, right to the present. At different stages in the history of
photography, the platinum process has been used to achieve different
artistic goals. In the period between invention and the turn of the
twentieth century, platinum was particularly valued for portraiture
because of its neutral blacks and soft, flattering detail. Early in the
twentieth century, the Pictorialists explored using different papers and
often hand-worked their platinum prints, sometimes applying layers of
other coatings. As photographers moved towards modernism, platinum
printing was valued for its luscious quality in areas of minimal detail. In
mid-century America, however, few platinum prints were made due to
the metals prohibitive cost and the preference for high-contrast, glossy
enlargements from hand-held camera negatives.
In 1964, beginning with Irving Penn, a resurgence of interest in the
medium brought new practitioners to the process. The 1970s, a time
of expansion and experimentation in the medium saw artists using
the platinum process for landscape views, still-lifes, portraits, and
nude studies. This re-engagement with platinum has lasted to the
present day, although only a handful of artists currently use platinum
as their primary photographic process. Some notable contemporary
practitioners include Kenro Izu, Lois Conner, Andrea Modica, and Scott
B. Davis, all of whose work is featured in this exhibition as well as a
complementary exhibition PLATINUM: Contemporary Photography, on
view in the Orme Lewis Gallery from January 10 to April 1, 2015.
All that Glitters is Not Gold presents 85 photographs by 50
photographers, all from the collection of the Center for Creative
Photography. They are organized chronologically to illustrate the
evolving use of this beautiful printing process.

Platinum Photography from

the Center for Creative Photography
November 1, 2014 March 1, 2015

Rebecca Senf, Norton Family Curator of Photography

On the following pages are

quotations from platinum
photographers, from the 19th
century to the present, explaining
why they value the process.
Some characteristics are mentioned
multiple times, even as the uses of
the medium change and evolve.

Peter Henry Emerson

A Reed-Cutter at Work, ca. 1885.
Platinum print.
Center for Creative Photography:
University of Arizona: Purchase.

P. H . E m e r s o n
Naturalistic Photography
for Students of the Art, 1889
We have no hesitation in saying that the discovery and subsequent practice
of this process has had an incalculable amount of influence in raising
the standard of photography. No artist could rest content to practice
photography alone as an art, so long as such inartistic printing processes
as the pre-platinotype (platinotype is a 19th century term for platinum print)
processes were in vogue. If theplatinotype process [was] to become a
lost art, we, for our part, should never take another photograph. For
low-toned effects, and for grey-day landscapes, the platinotype process is
unequalled

Henry G. Abbott

E. G. Boon

Modern Printing Processes:

Gum Bichromate and Platinotype Papers, 1900

Platinum The Pictorial Photographers Process

from the American Annual of Photography, 1913

The advantages of platinotype papers are many. A print when properly

toned is absolutely permanent; the various surfaces of stock make it
applicable to any variety of negative, and its capacity of being modified
in development allows the worker to put into the print those little
individualities so much to be desired. With a thorough knowledge of the
subject a great variety of prints may be made from the same negative.
An almost endless variety of tones can be secured, ranging from black,
through the browns and sepias to red. Green and blue tones in whole or in
part may also be secured by manipulation.

William E. Macnaughtan
A Connecticut River, 1912. (detail on cover)
Center for Creative Photography:
University of Arizona: Gift of Mrs. Raymond C. Collins.

A platinum picture has a character of its own. No-one can mistake it for
anything but a photographic picture. A properly rendered platinum picture
sums up the whole case for photography to be considered as an art. By
no other process can the delicate merging of half-tones, the fine values,
the transparency of shadows with shadow detail, the charming softness of
pigmentary deposit, be so well rendered.

Margrethe Mather
Johan Hagemeyer and Edward Weston, 1921.
Platinum print.
Center for Creative Photography:
University of Arizona: Johan Hagemeyer Collection/Purchase.

Frederick H. Evans

Paul Strand

speech reprinted in The Photographic Journal, Volume 24, 1900

Letter to The Arts, June 1, 1923

Realism in the sense of true atmosphere, a feeling of space, truth of

lighting, solidity and perfection of perspective has been my ambitious
aim. I have not been courageous enough as yet to try anything (if there is
anything) beyond platinotype, for which printing process I am sure my own
gratitude must ever remain quite inexpressible; apart from it, photography
as my art expression would never have satisfied me.

The facts about platinum as a photographic base are as follows...Platinum

came into use some thirty years ago, not because of material preciousness
but because the metallic platinum image was proven to be and still is the
only permanent one with the exception, possibly, of a few of the tissues
used in the carbon process. A platinum image is unaffected by light,
atmospheric conditions, or chemical attack, and it will endure longer even
than the paper in which it is fixed

Paul Anderson
The Technique of Pictorial Photography, 1939
(revised from Pictorial Photography: Its Principles and Practice, 1917 and 1923)
Platinum.
Advantages.
1.

The manipulation of platinum is much easier than that of any

other pictorial medium.

2.

Platinum renders gradations in the lights better than does

any other medium, and in the half-tones and shadows as well
as most of the others.

3.

Modifications of color ranging through neutral and warm

black, brown, and sepia are readily obtained.

4.

Modifications of tonal contrast are very easily made, platinum

being more flexible in this respect than most other mediums.

5.

Multiple printing, to increase contrast or to secure greater

richness in the shadows, is extremely easy.

6.

The superficial texture is esthetically pleasing, since the image

consists of a deposit of fine particles of metallic platinum
among the fibres of the paper, no gelatin emulsion being
used, for which reason the surface is lusterless.

7.

Practically any texture or weight of paper stock may be used,

from a tissue to the heaviest linen paper.

8.

Duplication of results is comparatively easy.

Paul L. Anderson
Sir Douglas Mawson, 1915.
Gum platinum print.
Center for Creative Photography:
University of Arizona:
Gift of Mrs. Raymond C. Collins.
Susan Collins

Harold Simon
A Breath of Light, in the exhibition catalogue,
A Breath of Light: The Contemporary Platinum Print, 1986
To a few photographers, the handmade look and sense of preciousness
that comes with [platinum prints] are important in and of themselves. Use
of the process embodies an entire Gestalt: going into the field or the studio
with equipment that is often handcrafted, making decisions that are no
longer required for other types of photography, slowly and methodically
working a single image along the entire process from concept to print
choosing paper, chemistry, contrast, and color, and making each print
one at a time. The resulting image is not looked at as a machine-made,
endlessly reproducible work, but as a unique work of art in much the way a
fine drawing is considered.

Dick Arentz
An Outline for Platinum Palladium Printing, 1990
The platinum-palladium process has many advantages, but when
compared to the silver print, it is no more superior than the cello is to the
violin; it simply has characteristics that makes it different
When compared to commercial silver papers, the platinum process has
some attributes:
It is one of the most stable of the photographic processes
as stable as the paper it is printed on.
It has a delicate response to highlights.
When considering reflection densities, the paper curve is
such that the tones are more evenly distributed, creating
a distinctive platinum image.
The process of hand coating allows the photographer
to increase the depth of emulsion, resulting in an image
with extreme physical presence.

Dick Arentz
Surf, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, 1985.
Platinum/palladium print.
Center for Creative Photography:
University of Arizona: Gift of the artist.
Dick Arentz

There is a wider exposure range of paper contrast,

allowing the use of a rich, contrasty negative.

Dick Arentz
Mission San Xavier del Bac, Arizona, 1987.
Platinum/palladium print.
Center for Creative Photography:
University of Arizona: Gift of the artist.
Dick Arentz

There is considerable choice regarding image and paper

tone and paper texture.
When compared to platinum, silver has a distinct set of advantages that
have made it the most popular of monochromatic printing processes:
It is less expensive than platinum (a typical small platinum
print will cost $5.00 in materials).
A silver print can be made from an enlarger, utilizing a
much smaller negative. Platinum is much slower; a contact
print is required. From a small negative, therefore, an
enlarged internegative must be made for platinum printing.
The reflection density (depth of black) is much greater with
silver than with platinum.
Optical detail or sharpness is greater on commercially
prepared silver paper than found in any hand-coated process.
Silver printing is easier...
Silver is capable of producing a black, cool or bluish
black not possible with platinum.

Ir ving Penn
Passage: A Work Record, 1991
Sometime in 1964 I realized that I was victim of a printmaking obsession, a
condition that persists today. The focus of my interest I found in the metal
platinum and its related palladium and iridium. With them in combination I
found possibilities for the most subtle controls and alterations.
Of course, I did not myself invent this technique, which dates from
photographys earlier days. I was simply relearning it and bringing to it both
new ignorance and contemporary materials.
Finally I arrived at the serene pleasure of making the print itself. Over the
years I must have spent thousands of hours silently brushing on the liquid
coatings, preparing each sheet of paper in anticipation of reaching the
perfect print.

EXHIBITION CHECKLIST
DISCOVERY
Lois Conner
Panoramas of the Far East: Photographs by Lois Conner, 1993

Peter Henry Emerson

Margrethe Mather

Gary Auerbach

A Reed-Cutter at Work, c. 1885

Johan Hagemeyer and Edward

Weston, 1921
Johan Hagemeyer, 1921
Hands, B.J., c. 1925

Pantano Wash Running, 1993

C.S.H. Studio, Philadelphia

Untitled, 1900
In 1974 I started using a 5 x 7 camera and was amazed at how much
information I could get onto the negative. But when I tried to print these
negatives on silver paper, I found that the subtle information was missing
in the print. The platinum printing process offers a fuller articulation of the
tonal scale. It creates a sense of three-dimensionality and enables me to
better describe such elements as volume, air, and weather.

Lafayette, Ltd.

Untitled, c. 1905
Herbert W. Gleeson

Walden or Life in the Woods,

1909

Longshan, Guangxi, China, 1991

Barbara Crane

Mousescape, 1995
Scott B. Davis

Edward Weston

Building, Sunset Strip,

Los Angeles, 2005

Margrethe, Portrait, Glendale

Studio, c. 1920
Johan Hagemeyer, 1921
Margrethe, Portrait, Glendale
Studio, 1921

RE VIVAL
Dick Arentz

Alice Boughton

Surf, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, 1985

Untitled, c. 1900
Margaret Boughton, 1902

Mission San Xavier del Bac,

Anne Brigman

Sanctuary, 1921
Gertrude LeRoy Brown

PLA Profile - Pinhole, c. 1915

Alfred A. Cohn

Photographers historically used the process to capitalize on nuanced,

delicate tones in their images. As a 21st century artist Im interested in
exploring ideas untouched by previous generations of photographers.
Night photography, first and foremost, is an act of discovery and one that
invites a keen sense of perception. Platinum printing, simply put, most
closely replicates the experience of how I see at night.

Chandler Weston

Lois Conner

Untitled, 1923

Sir Douglas Mawson, 1915

Mary G. Anderson, c. 1916
Ruth Anderson, 1917-1924
Pinkie, c. 1919

in an interview with Richard Gleaves, on Feb. 15, 2012,

published on the Agitprop website.

White Sheets, New Orleans, 1918

Untitled, c. 1922
The Barn, Quebec, 1936

Turtle in Church, Alice, Texas,

1997

Southern California and Yosemite

Valley, 1900-1901

Paul L. Anderson

Scott B. Davis

Paul Strand

Dan Burkholder

Adam Clark Vroman

PIC TORIALISM

Scott B. Davis
building, sunset strip, 2005.
Platinum/palladium print.
Center for Creative Photography:
University of Arizona: Purchase.
scott b. davis

CONTEMPOR ARY

Arizona, 1987
Gondolas, Venice, Italy, 1992
Richard Benson

Untitled, 1970s
Jed Devine

Untitled, 1986-1989

Douglas Brothers

Blind Horse, 1992

Randy Efros

Untitled (Desert Botanical

Garden, Phoenix), 2009-2010
(platinum and gelatin silver)
Untitled (Swansea, Arizona),
2009-2010 (platinum and
gelatin silver)
Jan Groover

Untitled, 1995
Kenro Izu

Still Life No. 148, 1991

Chris McCaw

Self portrait with beer, South

Dakota, 2000

Untitled, 1918
Untitled, c. 1920

Douglas Frank

Joseph T. Keiley

Jan Groover

Untitled, c. 1910

Untitled, 1981

Walter R. Latimer

Jeffrey D. Mathias

Concourse, 1915

Navajo Bridge, 1988

Ray Mortenson

William E. Macnaughtan

Tom Millea

A Connecticut River, 1912

Death Valley, 1981

Death Valley Flats, 1981
Untitled, 1983

Untitled, 2005 (nine cedars)

Untitled, 2005

Clarence H. White

Boy with Wagon, 1898

Untitled, c. 1910

TOWARDS
MODERNISM

Tree and Lake, Oregon, 1984

Andrea Modica

Jorge Posada, Oneonta Yankee,

1991
Oneonta Yankee, 1993

Joan Myers

Lightning, 1994

Irving Penn

Catherine Opie

Jean Cocteau, Paris, 1948

Composition of Ten Pieces, 1979

Untitled #23, 1994

Untitled #27, 1994

Ted Rice

J. Keith Schreiber

Imogen Cunningham

Untitled, 1981

Edward Weston and Margrethe

Mather, 1922

Meridel Rubenstein

Davis Dome, Fortymile, Alaska,

1998

Laura Gilpin

The White Bowl, 1924

Sisal Plant, Yucatan, 1932

Fetal Monitor #6, 1982/89

Madoka Takagi

George Tice

Untitled, 1980s
(six vacation pictures)

Russ Island, Maine, 1971

Kim Weston

Nude in Palm, 2009

A LESSON
IN PHOTOGRAPHIC
CONNOISSEURSHIP

Platinum Prints
When the platinum printing process was invented in the late 19th century, only
platinum was used as the final image material. In the early 20th century, due to
the increased cost of platinum metal, the platinum printing process was modified
to sometimes include a combination of platinum and palladium, or all palladium
image material. It is impossible to visually determine whether a photographic
print consists of all platinum, all palladium, or a combination of the two. The only
way to accurately identify the image material is through elemental analysis using
instrumental techniques. The most common technique used by conservators
to identify the metal elements present in a photograph is x-ray fluorescence
spectrometry. In this exhibition, when the specific metals are known, they are
indicated on the label. Otherwise the term platinum print is used to refer to all

Platinum vs. Gelatin Silver

prints made with platinum, palladium or a mix of the two.

Layer Structure
The platinum/palladium print, as seen in an enlarged cross section, consists of
one layer: a paper base with platinum image material embedded in the upper
fibers
The fiber-based gelatin silver print consists of three layers:
Top: A gelatin binder layer within which the silver image material is suspended
Middle: An opaque, smooth layer called baryta, which consists of the bright-white
pigment barium sulfate mixed with gelatin.
Bottom: The paper support

The platinum/palladium process has

many advantages, but when compared
to the silver print, it is no more superior
than the cello is to the violin; it simply has
characteristics that makes it different...
Dick Arentz
An Outline for Platinum Palladium Printing, 1990

An evaluation of the print characteristics discussed here layer

structure, texture and gloss, tonal range, and image tone is one often
conducted by curators, conservators, and collectors, and one that can
be helpful in understanding any photographic print. Museum visitors can
deepen their appreciation of photographic objects and the history of the
medium by learning how to look closely at a given print to determine its
unique attributes a practice known as connoisseurship in the field of
art history.

platinum image

Randy Efros
Untitled (Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix)
ca. 2009. contact printed from an 8x10
inch negative

paper support
baryta

Platinum/palladium print (top)

50% platinum/50% palladium, printed on
hand-coated Crane & Co. Signature Pearl White
Kid Finish 80# cover paper, developed with
Ammonium Citrate at 90 degrees, untoned

silver image

gelatin emulsion

Gelatin silver print (left)

Printed on Ilford Fiber Based Warmtone VC,
developed with Ethol LPD Developer, untoned

paper support

Kevin Layshock Phoenix Art Museum and the Center for Creative Photography, 2014

To understand the distinct

characteristics of a platinum print,
it helps to compare one to the
more common gelatin silver print.
What follows is a comparison of two prints in the exhibition - one platinum/
palladium and one gelatin silver that were each contact printed from the same
negative and thereby are ideal for comparison.

Te x t u r e a n d G l o s s

Hand-coated

The uncoated paper fibers of the platinum/palladium print are clearly visible under

Though commercial platinum papers were available at the end of the 19th

magnification and have a rough texture. This bumpy surface results in a matte

century, today most platinum prints are hand-coated by the photographer

surface sheen when compared to the glossy gelatin silver print. It also softens the

immediately prior to printing, as was the case with Efross platinum/palladium

image, creating a delicate and diffuse quality that contrasts with the sharp edges

print. The platinum solution can be applied to a wide range of papers from thin

and crisply defined lines often present in a gelatin silver print.

By contrast, the paper base of the gelatin silver print is coated with two layers and
therefore has a smooth, glossy surface. Under magnification the paper fibers of
the base are completely obscured by the baryta layer.

vellum to toothy watercolor paper. Applied with a brush or glass rod, a handcoated paper may show evidence of the coating technique in the dark margins
around the image (an example of this treatment can be seen on the full image,
credited on the reverse side of this foldout). The smooth edge of this prints
image margins indicate it was coated with a glass rod, not a brush.

To n a l R a n g e
platinum / palladium print details

gelatin silver print details

The dynamic range of tones is the difference between the lightest light and darkest
dark visible in a photograph. The tonal range in the platinum/palladium print is
narrower than in the gelatin silver print: the darkest tones are deep browns and
the lightest highlights are creamy off-whites. Within this narrower dynamic range,
however, the platinum/palladium print exhibits more incremental and subtle
degrees of brown, especially in the middle tones.
Gelatin silver prints often feature true blacks in the darkest areas and bright white
highlights, with a series of incremental greys in between.
The gelatin silver print exhibits greater contrast than the platinum/palladium print
because of its wider dynamic range, and the smaller number of middle values
present.
A useful analogy for the dynamic range in prints is a standard piano keyboard
whose keys divide a range of notes into increments ranging from high to low. A
gelatin silver print would be a full set of 88 keys, whereas a platinum print would
leave out the highest and lowest notes of the scale, dividing the middle range into
finer increments.

I m a g e To n e
photomicrograph at 30x magnification

Platinum prints rarely have true, deep black image areas. Image tones can range

photomicrograph at 30x magnification

from cool greys to warm browns and photographers knowingly manipulate the
chemistry and processing to achieve their desired image tones. Image tones are
influenced by the temperature of the developer (the warmer the developer, the
warmer the image tones), the combination of image materials, and by additives
such as mercury in the sensitizers and/or developer. This platinum/palladium print
has warm image tones because of the combination of platinum and palladium
image material and because the developer was heated to 90 degrees. The
brightest highlight tones of this platinum/palladium print are the prints paper base,
Crane & Co. Signature Pearl White Kid Finish, a 100% cotton paper with a wove
finish that was hand-coated by the photographer. Platinum print highlights can
range significantly from bright white to cream and yellow, depending on the original
color and condition of the paper base.
As opposed to the hand-coated platinum/palladium print, the gelatin silver print
was printed on a commercial paper, Ilford Fiber Based Warmtone VC, a variable
contrast black-and-white paper which has warm black image tones on a warm
white fiber base. The filamentary silver image material in this gelatin silver print
creates true blacks in the darkest image areas, and the baryta layer creates the
white highlight tones.
photomicrograph at 10x magnification

photomicrograph at 10x magnification

A LL TH AT
GLITTERS
IS NOT GOLD
Platinum Photography from
the Center for Creative Photography
November 1, 2014 March 1, 2015
Co-authored by Rebecca Senf, Norton Family Curator of Photography and

A Landmark
Photography
Partnership
In 2006, Phoenix Art Museum and the Center for Creative Photography
at the University of Arizona in Tucson inaugurated a highly innovative and
unprecedented collaboration to bring the finest in photography to Phoenix
Art Museum visitors. It established a vibrant new photography exhibition
program at the Museum, while bringing the Centers world-renowned
collections to new and larger audiences.

Jennifer Jae Gutierrez, Arthur J. Bell Senior Photograph Conservator at the

Center for Creative Photography.
For further exploration of photographic materials and their comparison,
see the Image Permanence Institutes Graphics Atlas at graphicsatlas.org

The Center for Creative Photography is one of the worlds largest repositories
of materials chronicling photography. Founded in 1975, it now houses 3.8
million archival items and 80,000 fine prints by photographers including
Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, Frederick
Sommer, W. Eugene Smith, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, and Garry Winogrand.
One of the nations leading art museums, Phoenix Art Museum presents
international exhibitions of the worlds greatest art and features a collection
that spans the centuries and the globe American, Asian, contemporary,
European, Latin American, and Western American art, and fashion design. Not
to be missed are the Thorne Miniature Rooms, the interactive family gallery
PhxArtKids, great shopping and dining, and a variety of public events.
Now, through the combined efforts of these two organizations, Phoenix
Art Museum visitors experience unparalleled excellence in the field of
photography in the Museums Doris and John Norton Gallery for the Center
for Creative Photography.

1625 North Central Avenue

Phoenix, AZ 85004-1685
602-257-1222
phxart.org

Kenro Izu
Still Life No. 148, 1991.
Platinum or palladium print.
Center for Creative Photography:
University of Arizona: Purchase.
Kenro Izu

University of Arizona
1030 North Olive Road
P.O. Box 210103
Tucson, AZ 85721-0103
520-621-7968
creativephotography.org

cover
William E. Macnaughtan
A Connecticut River, (detail), 1912.
Center for Creative Photography:
University of Arizona: Gift of Mrs. Raymond C. Collins.

Major support for this exhibition provided by Tempe Camera. tempecamera.com

produced with support from INFOCUS, the photography

Support Organization of Phoenix Art Museum. infocus-phxart.org