Digital BW, The Print

Thanks Paul,

As usual you were very thorough! Yes, I used the "lightly" toned 
method that  A. Adam's suggested for years also, as did 
thousands of darkroom junkies. Any more selenium than that 
made for quite purplish or brownish prints. This is probably why 
Emmet Gowin and others have started gold toning their work in 
the last decade. Of course that is a very specific hue which 
doesn't work for everything. In fairness to A. Adams science, it 
seems to me that he always refered to an "archivally processed" 
print as one lasting at least 100 years. 

I am sure inkjet is going to actually surpass the previous 
chemical media in longevity before long.  We have made radical 
progress in the last 5 years thanks to people like you. I know 
when I used to show work at the Center in Tucson we had this 
beautiful Carlton Watkins Yosomite portolio where the albumen 
prints were glued into a book. The prints that dated from the 
1880's were in excellent condition all around ( as were workd by 
Steglitz, Steichen, Julia Cameron,etc etc), except for the very 
edges where the acidity in the paper of the book stained those 
print edges. What saved the prints was actually the glue that he 
used to mount the prints with, whatever that was, seperating 
them from the acidity in the books paper. I was much more 
worried about Gene Smith's master prints that weredry mounted 
on cheap black cardboard and stored on the floor under the bed 
in this manhattan loft.

I am still a big believer in Premier Art spray and think products 
like this are going be part of the solution in the long run, but not 
the whole solution as you suggest. I just have not had the 
significant reduction in d-max in my Epson CF prints or Lyson 
Quad prints, that others have described, of course I have not 
been using carbon quad pigments but will be doing so this 
month. Then I may see that for myself.

Thanks,

John