Photographs by Frank

17 April 2021

Tonight’s Fortune / New Salted-Paper Prints

Simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought.

— Found in a fortune cookie this evening.

The ‘fortunes’ usually found in Chinese restaurant fortune cookies usually leave much to be desired. However, this one seems worth sharing.

Early spring (and that is stretching it… we had eight inches of snow yesterday) is tough photographically. The light is often drab, as is the landscape. Thus making new photographs is hit-or-miss.

However, I have been staying busy experimenting with salt-paper printing. I’ve been trying different types of subjects and different papers.

The prints shown below were made on three different papers. Artistico Hot Press is a medium weight (200 gsm) very traditional water color paper; it is just a little bit warm. Crane’s Cover is a moderately heavy (240 gsm) paper that is often used for alternative process printing; it is a fairly warm paper. Platinum Rag is a heavy (300 gsm) paper made specifically for alternative process printing (especially platinum printing, as the name suggests); it is pure white. All of these papers have very smooth surfaces.

Each paper has its idiosyncrasies when it comes to coating and exposure. It is amazing to me how different the same negative can look when printed on two different papers. This is all part of the fun!

Here are a few salted-paper prints made in the past few days…

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2 Comments

  1. So what do you do? Print some images on paper that is more suited to the texture or theme? I’m sure the process is quite different so as to warrant different chemicals. As we have heard many times in competitions and elsewhere – what do you like??

    Comment by Joe Kennedy — 18 April 2021 @ 12:24 PM

  2. Joe,

    One of the problems with trying all of these ‘odd’ things is the plethora of choices one has… e.g. process (cyanotype, salted-paper, Piezography, etc.) and paper (e.g. weight, tone (warm or cool white), surface texture, etc.)

    One has to figure out what set of choices works best to convey your ‘intent’. I’m not really sure how to do this in a systematic way, so I just experiment. Sometimes I end of with two very different prints both of which I like! There often is one ‘correct’ answer.

    Comment by Frank — 19 April 2021 @ 8:05 PM

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