Introduced in the 1870s, the gelatin silver process became one of the most important methods of printing black and white photography in the twentieth century. A light-sensitive mixture of silver salts suspended in gelatin is used to coat pieces of paper. These papers may be kept in a dry, dark storage area for some time before they are exposed. This contrasted with earlier photographic methods, like the wet collodion process, which must be used immediately after preparation. There are two types of silver gelatin photographic paper: printing out and developing out. With printing out paper, the negative is placed on …
Introduced in the 1870s, the gelatin silver process became one of the most important methods of printing black and white photography in the twentieth century. A light-sensitive mixture of silver salts suspended in gelatin is used to coat pieces of paper. These papers may be kept in a dry, dark storage area for some time before they are exposed. This contrasted with earlier photographic methods, like the wet collodion process, which must be used immediately after preparation. There are two types of silver gelatin photographic paper: printing out and developing out. With printing out paper, the negative is placed on top of the paper and exposed to sunlight, prompting the image to appear. With developing out paper, the negative is placed on top of the paper or in an enlarger and exposed to an artificial light source. The image appears after the paper is processed using chemical developer and fixer. Because the resulting photographs are relatively stable and simple to produce, the process remains a popular way of printing black and white photographs today. The process has been used by historical photographers including August Sander, Walker Evans, and Ansel Adams, as well as contemporary artists like Nicholas Nixon, Lee Friedlander, James Welling, Lorna Simpson, and Sally Mann.
