What is a fine art photographic print?

Photographic prints are not all the same, materials used and processing procedure determine the quality and therefore the value of it.

Let's look in detail at what characteristics of a photographic print must be guaranteed in order for it to be called a Fine Art print.

Fine Art Prints

Fine Art Prints must guarantee specific technical requirements, which are essentially two:

  • The durability of the print over time

  • The qualities of the paper on which it is printed

A fine art photographic print must therefore be created following a specific process depending on the type of final support (paper) used.

Silver Gelatin Fine Art Prints.

The prerogatives of a silver salt print are distinguished from ink-jet prints by an incredible array of qualities unattainable by printed digital images.

Creating a fine art print in a darkroom requires a series of specific steps, at the end of which we will have in front of us a unique object that will last for over a hundred years.

The choice of paper

Silver gelatin printing can be done on several specific types of printing papers.

These papers are sprinkled with a layer of silver halides and are sensitive to light.

For this reason this process is called Silver Printing, or Silver Gelatin Printing, and for the same reason it is necessary to have a Darkroom, that is, one without light, in order to handle and transfer an image from a photographic negative to the sheet of light-sensitive paper.

These are divided into two types:

  • RC papers

  • FB papers

RC papers (Resin Coated Papers)

The most commonly used papers, even in the art market, are RC paper prints, i.e., Resin Coated.

These papers are plastic resin-based and sprinkled with silver halides. They are papers that require less exposure time in the printing stages and are easier to handle, as they are stiffer and less delicate than a fiber paper, especially when, as with traditional darkroom printing, they must be manually dipped in a series of liquids before they can be dried.

These papers are produced in a wide variety of textures, but have a lower capacity for tonal rendering, black reproduction, and longevity.

RC papers are not Fine Art papers, but we often find them in the art market used as artist's proofs or contact specimens.

FB papers (Fiber Base Papers)

These papers have always been used by the greatest analog printers and photographers, from Edward Weston to Ansel Adams, to name a few, precisely because of their natural prerogatives:

  • Excellent tonal rendering

  • Richness of blacks

  • High grammage

  • Pure cellulose

Its heavy fiber base then, gives the prints an 'obvious premium aesthetic, a feeling that is a unique prerogative of fine art silver gelatin prints.

If you think you have never seen a fine art silver gelatin print live, look for a photo exhibit or gallery in your city and try to focus on the quality of the print, the hues and depth of what you are looking at.

Focus not on the detail of the image but on the immersive feeling these prints transfer.

Fine art prints, especially if they are derived from a negative are able to tell and offer the viewer the experience of the photographer's eye at the moment he or she caught them.

The toning and washing, how to make a gelatin silver print strong and durable.

As with cooking, where there is no one recipe for the same dish, so the darkroom offers the printer thousands of ways and techniques for making a print.

For the analog printer then, the choice of paper is only the first in a series of possible steps; it is the experience of the printer himself, which can make the difference.

Developing a print in the darkroom is a procedure made up of multiple steps, from the use of the most suitable chemistries, to different dilutions, to techniques for toning and washing.

Toning, one of the last chemical steps during the printing stages, for example, physically transforms the silver halides imprinted in the paper restoring greater three-dimensionality, a characteristic hue (e.g. sepia ) along with a renowned longevity.

Washing is another essential aspect of fine art silver salts prints. Specific procedures, temperatures and rinsing times are used to ensure the print removes residual hyposulfite, a substance necessary to stabilize the impressed image on the paper sheet.