| THE SILVER GELATIN PRINT |
| I will try to make
this
explanation as simple as possible. It might start to read a
little like a high school science project, but the topic is certainly
worthy of discussion. Furthermore, if you are considering
making
a purchase, this will be very helpful information to aid in the
understanding of just what it is you're buying. In its grandest simplicity a silver gelatin print is just another name for a black and white photograph. However we have come to a point in photography's history when digital print processing is rapidly becoming the norm. The group of photographers who continue to use 'old-fashioned' wet darkroom techniques is growing smaller - - rapidly. Therefore, the term 'silver gelatin' becomes far more significant. Only black and white prints produced using traditional wet darkroom techniques can be called silver gelatin prints. Digital prints cannot rightfully have this term applied to them. Traditional black and white films and printing papers share a great commonality. Both are produced by suspending silver halide particles in a gelatinous substrate. Film has this gelatinous substrate applied to a thin transparent cellulous backing. Printing paper has this gelatinous substrate applied to a variety of paper surfaces. Silver halides are actual particles of silver that have been chemically combined with light-sensitive particles (the halides). These silver halide particles are suspended in a gelatinous compound which is then applied to the paper (or the cellulous in the case of film). In the darkroom this light sensitized paper is exposed by shining light though the negative onto the paper. An enlarger is used for this process. Then the exposed paper is run through a number of chemical 'baths' in order to develop, stabilize, and preserve the image on the paper. The blacks and various tones of gray that are seen in the print are formed by these silver halide particles after they have been treated by the chemical baths. So basically what you are seeing in the print are clusters of silver particles. The developer changes the silver halide particles that have been exposed to light into silver particles. The fixing bath removes all the unexposed silver halide particles from the gelatinous substrate. At this point it should be mentioned that there is some relative significance as to the type of photographic paper that is used to make the print. There are two basic types of paper. The first is called RC (resin coated) and the second type is called fiber-based. Fiber-based paper has been around for a long time (close to 100 years) whereas RC paper has really only been around for about 40 years. In its earlier days, RC paper was definitely inferior to fiber-based paper. This inferiority was primarily centered around the probable longevity of the print. RC prints would just not last as long. However, there have been recent improvements in RC technology that have significantly improved the longevity factor. Meanwhile, fiber-based paper is still the more accepted and respected paper of choice among traditional fine art photographers. If you are looking at a photographer's work and it is not specifically stated that it is printed on fiber-based paper, then it probably is not. Traditional silver gelatin prints on fiber-based papers have shown great durability. I don't necessarily think its fair to consider any photographic materials as time-tested, since photography has only been around for a mere 150 years. I say this especially in consideration of paintings, which in many cases have endured for 500 to 600 years (and in some cases more than 1,000 years). However, that being said, modern scientific testing designed to determine the longevity of photographs has shown very positive results. If properly processed, photographic prints could and should last for hundreds of years (and very likely longer). |
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