Over the past several weeks I've been experimenting with my new (homemade) UV printer. It is basically a bank of UV light in the form of blacklight bulbs encased in a wooden box with a hinged lid. This is the first successful Palladium print that has come from it. For those who may be unfamiliar, this is a contact printing process whereby a paper (or other substrate) is sensitized and then the negative is placed over it and exposed to UV light. This exposure allows the negative to allow varying amounts of light through, yielding a final positive print. In this case the sensitizing agent is Ferric Oxalate mixed with Palladium and Platinum and Palladium (actually
Potassium Chloroplatinite and Sodium Chloropalladite). The photograph is deceivingly good, in the sense that the range really is not as nice as it seems. In person the print has character and the relationships between the highlights and shadows are representative of the original negative density, but overall it is a little bit darker than this photograph leads on. It measure 8"x10" on 10"x12" Arches Platine paper. I'd say that I am close to working on the print that I want to deliver to the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts - I told myself that I would finally get to do that; I have owed them something for a couple of months now!
So onward to fine tuning the recipe and digital negative printing. More to come on this later as I go...
