Platinum Palladium Print

Platinum palladium prints offer the ultimate in photographic permanence, this coupled with their subtle tonal range and the tactile quality of an image made on and-made paper, makes the platinum print the most valued of all photographic images.

31 Studio make their prints using the original platinotype method as devised by William Willis in 1876. The process involves contact printing the negative using ultraviolet light for the exposure. To get the most from the original camera negative they first make an enlarged inter-positive and then an inter-negative. Only this way can a negative be made that will bring out all the subtleties of tone for which the platinum-palladium process is renowned.

Aside from the longevity and tonal aesthetics with the platinum print, the nature of his hand process provides another-uniqueness. Even with in a short edition of the same image, each print carries diverse subtleties making it a unique interpretation in itself. This is one of the great advantages of such a hand-crafted printing process, far removed from the world of mass produced silver-based papers and modern supports for digital outputs. With platinum printing there is no reliance of factory prepared materials, each print of an edition being executed singly as though is was the only example of that image, an un repeatable dialogue between the image, the chemistry and the printer's skill.