For the discriminating.....a platinum portrait.

The moment may be in the past, but you will cherish the memory in the future. A Platinum Portrait is perhaps the most permanent remembrance available to preserve memories for generations and centuries to come. The quality of platinum prints is unique in human experience.

Platinum printing is history's most beautiful photographic process. Platinum prints are known for their delicate tonal scales derived from hand coated noble metals and printing on fine art papers. One hundred years ago the Platinum print was the most popular photographic medium among the finest of artistic media, one of the most permanent of photographic processes, Platinum is once again in vogue.

The platinum print is for people who have the ability to see...

Modern black & white photographs are also known as silver/gelatin prints where the image is formed with silver metal in a gelatin emulsion. Almost all black & white prints are made by using "factory-made" commercial paper. However, most platinum prints are hand crafted. When one refers to a "platinum print" one may most likely assume it includes palladium, as most prints have a combination of the two precious metals in the sensitizer.

Platinum/palladium printing is truly an art form, time and labour intensive. It begins with first mixing the sensitizer, then coating the paper, drying the paper, printing it with exposures counted in minutes rather than seconds, and then the final processing of the print. The process can take anywhere from minutes to an hour and longer. The goal is to produce a one-of-kind image of the highest quality.

Portraits look alive.

Landscapes and still lifes appear to have an inner glow.

Since the late 19th and early 20th century, master photographers have been using Platinum/Palladium printing to create images of exceptional beauty:

• they are hand coated with precious platinum and palladium metals embedded upon and within the surface of the paper
• they have a long subtle tonal scale unattainable in traditional Black & White silver gelatin prints
• prints amplify depth and surface texture and yield the most archival and unmatched stable prints available today
• prints have a depth and range of colour
• printed on a selection of fine art printmaking papers

Although I enjoy working with colour, black & white has a timeless quality and when printed in Platinum/Palladium there is a physical tactile quality and "look" that has to be seen to be fully appreciated. Once seen it'll change the way you look at photographs. The process is conducive to personal creative choices made by the photographer, which incorporates emotion and an intuitiveness. Platinum/Palladium printing is enjoying a renaissance. More and more discerning photographers are rediscovering the pleasure of working in this process which Alfred Stieglitz once called "the Prince of photographic printing processes".

For more information on Platinum/Palladium printing or links to more comprehensive sites regarding alternative processes,

CONTACT Ralph Rinke - Photographer (604) 990-3933 e-mail ralph@platinumphotos.com

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