Platinum prints and the less expensive but simi-
lar palladium prints are still widely used today and
are by far the most popular of all the non-silver
processes. Sir John Herschel was the first to realize
the potential for platinum as a light-sensitive mate-
rial, but it was William Willis who perfected their
use and patented the process in 1873. In platinum
printing, ferric oxalate and potassium chloroplati-
nite coat the paper, which is exposed to sunlight
through a negative. The ferric salts become ferrous
in proportion to the exposure. The print is devel-
oped in potassium oxalate, which dissolves the fer-
rous salts and reduces the platinum to its metallic
state. The unexposed ferric salts remaining on the
paper are removed by a dilute solution of hydro-
chloric acid. The final image is in pure platinum, a
highly stable metal that is rarely affected by the
environment. The tonal range is extraordinary,
making platinum prints the connoisseur’s choice
in photographic prints.
With the exception of the platinum and palla-
dium processes, most of these alternatives to silver
would have disappeared entirely after the introduc-
tion of commercially manufactured silver-based
papers in the mid-1880s if photographers had
been content to remain outside the arenas of fine
art. With the invention of roll film and easy-to-
operate box cameras, photography was considered
no more than a photomechanical process easily
employed to record the visible world. An artist,
however, did no such thing: an artist interpreted
the world through personal sensibilities. Photogra-
phy, to be recognized as an art medium, had to
reflect its abilities through modulation of tonalities
and details, to respond to the artist’s interpretation
of a subject. Informed by the academic standards
applied to the painting and graphic arts of their
day, the Pictorialists began their quest to secure
photography’s position as an art form.
Alternatives to the silver print were thus recon-
sidered, this time for their ease of manipulation and
their ability to reflect the photographer’s individual
interpretation of the image on the negative. Experi-
mentation with these earlier processes led to new
and more flexible formulas for non-silver imagery.
Gum bichromate was an immediate success
among photographers with higher artistic aspira-
tions when the French photographer Robert Dema-
chy rediscovered the process and introduced it to the
European community at the 1894 London Salon.
The French and Austrian Pictorialists quickly seized
upon it because of its great range of manipulation
and in America, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen,
and Gertrude Ka ̈sebier were among the many who
championed its potential.
Stieglitz was an active proponent of photogra-
phy as a fine art. As the founding editor in 1903 of
the vastly influential magazineCamera Work, Stie-
glitz was a pivotal figure on the American front of
the Pictorialist movement. He was the instigator of
the Photo-Secession and organized the seminal
exhibition of art photography at the National
Arts Club in New York City in 1902,Pictorial
Photography, Arranged by The Photo-Secession.
The Photo-Secession consolidated the already
influential Pictorialist movement in America,
bringing together like-minded photographers in
both Europe and America for active dialogues,
technical information, and exhibitions, spreading
the word about not only the gum bichromate pro-
cess, but the photogravure and platinum print, or
platinotype, as it was more commonly called dur-
ing this era.
Photogravure, an intaglio printmaking process
using potassium dichromate and gelatin as a
photo-resist on copper plate (another of Talbot’s
discoveries), was also popularized by Steiglitz in
America. The etching process yielded a richness in
detail and tonality consistent with fine intaglio
prints. The plates were hand-rubbed with different
colors of ink and hand-pulled on art papers. Multi-
ples could be made, but like any hand-worked
craft, the effort was labor-intensive and reflected
the printer’s sensibilities.
Platinum printing continued as a popular med-
ium among the Pictorialists, especially when it was
combined with other processes such as gum
bichromate, carbon, and cyanotype. British and
American photographers took the lead in experi-
menting with gum and platinum printing. The
leading American-born Pictorialist, Alvin Lang-
don Coburn, a frequent exhibiter of the combined
processes, is often credited with the invention of
this technique. The French and the Austrians were
best known for their work in gum bichromate,
although Robert Demachy, an early champion of
the gum process, became the leading proponent of
the oil transfer process. Bromoil, its less compli-
cated cousin, gradually replaced it as a first choice
among amateurs well into the 1940s. By 1910,
Pictorialism had reached its peak. In America,
the fabled 1910 exhibition of Photo-Secessionists
at the Albright Gallery, in Buffalo, New York,
beat all attendance records for the gallery. Six
hundred or so photographs were on display to
16,000 viewers. In 1917, the last issue ofCamera
Workwas published featuring the work of Paul
Strand. The era of ‘‘straight photography’’ and
its almost exclusive reliance on the gelatin silver
print had begun.NON-SILVER PROCESSES