Bruce Barnbaum - The Art of Photography - An Approach to Personal Expression

Concerning archival permanence, I’m somewhat skeptical about the information presented to photographers for two reasons. First, tests that simulate the aging of a print may not be accurate. At best, they simulate (in a laboratory environment) what is currently believed to be a factual model of aging. They may not simulate actual aging conditions. Second, no matter how clean the final print is, it is still subject to the high acid content of the air in our modern world. If the acidic air is destroying stone monuments, it is surely doing damage to photographs, even ones protected with selenium. The only way to truly protect a print from damage is to hermetically seal it from any contact with the atmosphere. However, I do recognize that toning and complete washing surely give it greater longevity—if not permanence—than a print lacking that treatment.

Furthermore, the issue of archival permanence is overblown, and often of concern only to photographers. If we turn to painting, watercolors are highly impermanent. In 1981, after I completed photographing the English cathedrals, I was lucky enough to see the Turner watercolors displayed at the Tate Gallery in London. To my understanding, these magnificent paintings are exhibited only once every 10 years for approximately three weeks, and even then they are shown under dim lighting. The reason is that watercolors fade quickly under strong lighting. Nobody raises the issue of impermanence of these treasures, but photographers go on at great lengths about the correct methods of preserving photographs. I think it’s a bit silly. I do the best I can with the information available; I suggest you do the same. Concentrate on your personal expression and your art. Let time do what it will to your vision.

In the early 1990s, David Hockney had an exhibition that included collages in mixed media. Large portions of the work included color photographs, which lack true archival permanence. At the opening, someone reportedly asked him, “How can you charge $10,000 for a work that won’t last 20 years?” Hockney replied, “How much does a Porsche cost, and how long does it last?”

The processing procedures outlined throughout this chapter constitute black-and-white archival print processing. They include two fixing baths for full removal of salts from the emulsion and paper base, selenium toning for greater resistance to environmentally induced damage, and complete washing of prints to remove all remaining acids and salts.

A quick review of my current steps toward black-and-white archival processing may be useful:

Use two fixing baths to remove all silver salts.

Fix prints for a total of seven minutes in the two standard fixers (see manufacturers’ recommendations for varying this time for some fixing baths).

After fixing, hose rinse each print and place in a tray of water with water trickling into it.

Accumulate all fixed prints in the holding tray of water.

Bathe all prints in a hypo-clearing agent bath (to prevent staining in selenium toner).

Accumulate all prints in a holding tray of water.

Selenium tone all prints. (Other toners may be used instead of selenium.)

Hose rinse each print and place in a tray of water with water trickling into it.

Place prints in the second, third, and fourth trays with water trickling into each.

Squeegee each print and place on a screen (emulsion side down) for drying.

Toning, Intensifying, and Reducing Negatives

Negatives, too, can be selenium toned to increase contrast, density, and permanence. Just as selenium combines with the silver in the paper’s emulsion, it combines with silver in the negative’s emulsion to increase density. This process does not increase grain, an unwanted effect of all other negative intensifiers. Also, all other negative intensifiers, such as chromium intensifier, theoretically degrade the permanence of the negative; selenium treatment enhances it! I use a strong 1:1 dilution of Rapid Selenium Toner with water to intensify negatives.

Selenium treatment of negatives is performed after the processing is completed, so it can be done days, weeks, or years later. A low contrast negative can be intensified, but it works to best effect if the negative has good density to begin with. A thin negative does not offer sufficient silver to combine chemically with the selenium. Just immerse the negative in a solution of selenium and agitate for 15–20 minutes for full effect. Re-wash the negative after treatment, immerse it briefly in Photo-Flo, and hang it to dry. If agitation time is shorter and the contrast increase is insufficient, repeat the process. However, there is an upper limit to the amount of selenium that can be bonded to the existing silver in the emulsion, and therefore an upper limit on the possible contrast increase.

The increase in contrast due to selenium toning of a negative may be the equivalent of an N+ development instead of N. This has particularly important consequences for roll film users, as it extends the use of the zone system to subsequent redevelopment of the negative. Selected frames can be cut out, increased in contrast with selenium, and enlarged more effectively afterwards. It also allows for rethinking negative development in situations where it’s difficult to decide on the appropriate level of contrast. You can always choose the lower contrast option, then later switch to the higher contrast approach via selenium treatment of the negative!

Potassium ferricyanide can reduce density in overly dense negatives. Interestingly, though reducing a print increases contrast to a great extent, reducing a negative (at least the Kodak Tri-X negatives I have subjected to potassium ferricyanide) seems to reduce contrast slightly. My procedure is to set up three trays: a fixer tray on the left, a water tray in the center (with a hose delivering fresh water to that tray throughout the process), and a potassium ferricyanide tray on the right. I first immerse the negative in the fixer tray for several minutes, then rinse it in the water tray, then fully immerse it in the potassium ferricyanide solution, rocking the tray gently. Make sure the negative is fully immersed in the bleach at all times, or an unwanted tonal break will appear wherever the negative is not immersed. Then I remove it from the bleach, rinse it in the water tray, and place it back in the fix. I do this as many times as necessary to bring the overly dense negative back to more reasonable, printable densities.

The key is knowing when to stop this procedure! Always maintain ample tonal density and separations in the shadow (thin) areas of the negative. If you continue the process for too long a time, you can lose those critical shadow areas, permanently destroying the negative. At first, the changes may seem painfully slow because the negative is so dense. After you get past the grossly dense stage, watch it carefully, for the same amount of bleaching will seem to yield far greater density changes that can easily get away from you.

Cold, Neutral, and Warm Tone Papers

Another aspect of black-and-white papers that was mentioned earlier but not discussed is the inherent coloration of the paper. “Cold tone”, “neutral tone”, and “warm tone” papers each have their adherents. Cold tone implies a blue/white base, neutral tone implies a relatively neutral white base, and warm tone implies a yellow/white base. Some photographers print on one type of paper to the complete exclusion of others. (I use neutral and cold tone papers; Jay Dusard uses only warm tone papers). Some people feel that warm tone papers impart a pleasant, “old” look to a print. Some people prefer to print on neutral or cold tone papers and then use a sepia, brown, or heavy selenium toner to obtain a brown image—one with a different coloration from the warm tone papers.