"It is perhaps not too much to say that in Penn’s prints the descriptive resources of the photographic gray scale have never been more fully exploited."
—John Szarkowski
Beginning in 1964, Irving Penn began experimenting with platinum printing. Penn had spent his career up to that point making photographs which were seen almost exclusively in reproduction within the glossy pages of magazines and in his pivotal 1960 book Moments Preserved. Penn set himself the challenge of producing photographic prints that would surpass the technical limitations of reprographic media and deliver a deeper visual experience. He was drawn to the antiquated platinum process for its long gray scale – its ability to display a seemingly infinite array of gradations between pure white and absolute black.
The platinum process requires direct contact with the negative, without enlargement, so Penn first needed to create flawless negatives the same size as the desired print. He then hand-coated paper with platinum emulsion. When dry, the paper was sandwiched with the negative and exposed to light before processing. Rigorous experimentation revealed that recoating a print with a secondary emulsion and making a second or third exposure of the same image on a single sheet of paper yielded prints of greater depth and subtlety. Penn solved the problem of aligning and re-aligning the negative and the print surface over multiple exposures by borrowing a technique from the graphic arts: he mounted his paper on a sheet of aluminum with a series of registration guides along the top edge. Penn was guarded about the preparation of his emulsions and his precise formulations varied considerably. He frequently introduced palladium and iron salts into his coatings to achieve desired effects.
Penn made this platinum-palladium print of Harlequin Dress (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn) in 1979. His notations on the reverse show that the print was made on Rives paper and coated and exposed twice. It is a perfect illustration of the delicacy and expressive breadth of the platinum process and showcases Penn’s assured mastery as a photographic printer. Like all of Penn’s work in the medium, it is an entirely handmade object and is deliberately unique in its tonality and interpretation of the source image.
