Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/04/13

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Subject: Re: [Leica] B&W paper - Forte
From: Mark Rabiner <mark@rabiner.cncoffice.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 08:28:18 -0700

Dan Cardish wrote:
> 
> Archivalness?   I've got 30 year old prints made when I didn't know my ass
> from a hole in the ground about photography, and they look today just as
> they did when they were first printed (and I certainly didn't selenium tone
> them; I never heard of it back then).    People take  this "archival" thing
> way too seriously.  It just isn't that difficult to wash a photograph.  I
> suspect that it is just a marketing ploy used to justify higher prices for
> "fine art" prints, similar to calling them "silver-gelatin" rather than
> what they really are.
> 
> Dan C.
> 
>   At 05:39 PM 12-04-00 -0700, Mark Rabiner wrote:
> >
> >Except they are saying now that you don't get Archivalness with 1:9.
> >But if you've only toned a few prints you can pour it into a bottle and
> reuse it again.
> >This I'm learning from Richard Knoppow's rec.photo.darkroom.
> >It's a newsgroup and I have to remind myself to go over there.
> >It's the only newsgroup I look and post to.
> >Mark Rabiner

Well we tone to get the green out;
to strengthen our blacks;
we like that slight purple tint;
but without the Selenium toner (and proper washing) we don't have a print worth
splat on the collectors market.
Eventually after all this sweating out in the darkroom time after time (printing
fiber) we amass a body of work which someone else has in interest in.
Whether we part with it for $20 or $200 depends on if it has serious value on
the collectors market. And for that it needs to be Archival.
No Selenium = no archival 
although other toners are now being considered as equally or more valuable in
this end.
The Selenium will tone the blacks but not the highlights unless it is quite
strong. The highlights remain silver instead of silver selenite and will be
fragile in the environment and therefore completely devalues the worth of the print.
We may think our darkroom tinkerings are only for our own personal amusement but
one thing leads to another. Hang some stuff up in a coffee shop and then it's a
real gallery.
Mark Rabiner