Laurence Aberhart has released sixty-one platinum prints over the period 1994 – 1997. McNamara Gallery is exhibiting seventeen of these in Heavy metal from July 3-31.
Laurence Aberhart has released sixty-one platinum prints over the period 1994 – 1997. McNamara Gallery is exhibiting seventeen of these in Heavy metal from July 3-31.
Laurence Aberhart writes: the platinum print contains within it, compared to a regular silver gelatin print, an elongated tonal range. To exploit this a negative has to be ‘constructed’, which in brief means that the resultant negative appears extremely dense.
Unfortunately this means that a negative made to exploit the platinum print process is pretty near useless for anything else.
When reading about platinum prints, there is much talk about the subtle and extended highlights – but I found the expansion within the dark areas equally revelatory. What would appear to be just black in another medium, in a platinum print can be seen as a profound expansion of subtle details.
The process for making platinum prints was invented in 1873 by William Willis (1841-1923).
Unlike the silver print process, platinum lies within the paper surface, while silver lies in a gelatin or albumen emulsion that coats the paper. As a result the final platinum image is absolutely matte with a deposit of platinum absorbed slightly into the paper, and has the texture of whatever paper was used.
Metallic platinum is one of the most stable substances known, and as such the prints are as permanent as their paper base.
Platinum prints are valued for their great range of subtle tonal variations, usually silvery grays, and their permanence.