Platinum Palladium Printing is a one-day workshop (9.30 am to 4.00 pm, with coffee available from 9.00am), intended to provide participants with a thorough understanding of platinum/palladium printing and will involve hands on practice of the processes involved.

Topics covered include:

• a brief history of the process;
• discussion of the platinum print aesthetic based on a selection of contemporary platinum prints;
• an overview of digital negatives and suggestions for sources for more detailed information;
• using digital negatives made from two of each participant’s digital images, each participant hand-coating watercolour paper with the platinum and palladium salts, exposing, developing and clearing the prints to take home;
• control of print tonality from somewhat cool to warm;
• sources for chemicals used and suitable papers.

All materials required for the day, such as paper, platinum and palladium solutions etc, are included in the fee.  Detailed notes of the material covered will be provided.

Participants will be asked to email two digital images to the instructor prior to the workshop. These images will be used to produce digital negatives for use in making their own platinum/palladium prints by the end of the workshop.

The workshop will be restricted to a maximum of 4 participants to allow hands on involvement in the process. 

It includes morning tea and a light lunch. Please bring your own lunch if you have specific dietary requirements, a fridge and microwave are available.

If the workshop is canceled due to insufficient registration or other unforeseen circumstances, a full refund will be issued.

Learn the gentle art of making hand-crafted platinum/palladium prints.

Platinum/palladium printing is regarded as one of the finest 19th century alternative process photographic techniques.  It is particularly well suited to the delicate portrayal of image highlights.

In this workshop, participants will use two of their own digital images to make platinum/palladium prints from the initial step of hand coating watercolour paper with salts of platinum and palladium, to then exposing, developing and clearing the prints.   The resultant print images are formed from the fine grains of the noble metals platinum and palladium imbedded in the paper itself. The prints will last as long as the paper itself does.

While the focus of the workshop is on providing a thorough understanding of the platinum/platinum printing process, the skills acquired provide a good foundation for other alternative techniques such as kallitypes, van dyke brown and salt prints.

• All materials required for the day, such as paper, platinum and palladium solutions etc, are included in the fee.  
• Detailed notes of the material covered will be provided.
• An apron or similar, or wear old clothes to protect yourself from possible staining.

Queensland Centre for Photography

6 Maud Street, Newstead, QLD 4006, 07- 32161727

• Street parking

The Tutor:

Julian Pearce learnt platinum/palladium printing from Gordon Undy (of Point Light Gallery in Sydney), who is regarded as one of Australia’s leading practitioners of this art in Australia.  Gordon learnt his technique from George Tice who was at the forefront of the resurgence of this alternative process in the US in the 1960s.  The workshop therefore passes on this fine tradition.

Julian has exhibited his platinum/palladium images in solo exhibitions at the Queensland Centre for Photography (and group exhibitions) and at Point Light Gallery in Sydney and in numerous group exhibitions including at the Redcliffe Regional Art Gallery.  He is a contributor to a book of original alternative process photographs, The Spirit Within Australia, which is held in the permanent collections in the State Libraries of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, as well as The Bodleian Library Oxford UK, the Library Congress in Washington DC, and Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles.