Digital BW, The Print

Here is the link to the article: http://cool.conservation-us.org/jaic/articles/jaic44-01-001.html

Keith Schreiber

Thanks!  Interesting article indeed.

I started darkroom printing in 1970 (after making a few prints in 1962-63), and followed the non-professional literature during that decade and most of the 80's. From that perspective there appeared to be a great deal of consternation about RC papers both as to their artistic merits and archival qualities. East Street Gallery was producing their print washers along with literature on best-practices processing. I really don't recall any concerns being expressed in those days about the archival qualities of brighteners, except a warning about overly long washing times.

I tried a number of different papers (none of which helped my unsophisticated techniques!) and noticed that some were "whiter" than others, sometimes on the front, sometimes on the back, and sometimes on both. As far as I knew this had been the case since the 1950's. (Pre-WWII seemed like a different world, although many of the trade names continued into my era.) I must have read/learned that some papers contained brighteners, since I knew how to test them with a UV light by the late 70's.  My best recollection, though, is that the choice of brightened vs. non-brightened was almost entirely an artistic decision (with bright RC papers creating a bias against bright, shiny prints as cheap, industrial-commercial and probably in poor taste).

I wonder why I never systematically tested the papers I used in the old days.  Hmmm.  I should test the graded Oriental Seagull from the early 1990's that worked so well for me.  It was/is very white (commented on by a framer I used).

Surely there must be a PhD student somewhere (RIT? MIT?) who is doing research on the chemistry of paper brightening!  It can't be *that* difficult to do qualitative (and even quantitative) analyses of a range of photo-printing papers. What chemicals are used? What causes them to cease absorbing UV and fluorescing blue-ish light? When that happens, they must change chemically, so the next question is whether the result is archivally inert or will accelerate degradation of the print.  Epson et al. seem to treat these things as trade secrets, so we need an academic or other independent scientist to do the work and/or make it public for the rest of us.

Myron