Charlie in Platinum & Palladium ~ A Mutual Aid Auction

In the fall of 2017, after I finished the coffee table book celebrating Charlie’s tenth birthday and had sent it off to the printer, I was in that weird state of being absolutely buzzed from completing the project and also exhausted from the work. I couldn’t sit still and I couldn’t focus on normal stuff. The book had turned out better than I’d ever imagined and sales had too, so I gave myself a gift I’d wanted for years. I drove to New Mexico for a week-long one-on-one apprenticeship with David Michael Kennedy, one of the living masters of Platinum/Palladium printing.

Platinum/Palladium printing is one of the oldest photographic printing techniques. A light-sensitive solution of platinum and/or palladium is hand-painted onto watercolor paper, and a contact print is made under ultraviolet light – traditionally, the sun.

I also learned how to make high-quality negatives from my digital files, which allows me to create Platinum/Palladium prints from pictures of Charlie that I’ve taken with my digital camera.

Platinum/Palladium prints are gorgeous, truly luminous, with a tonal range that surpasses any other form of photographic print. (Frustratingly, it’s impossible to see the incredible print quality through a computer screen.)

The noble metals bond with the paper itself, so Platinum/Palladium prints are estimated to last thousands of years without any deterioration in the quality of the print. The Platinum/Palladium process is a spectacular blend of art, science, and magic.

It’s also quite rare these days. Platinum and palladium are expensive materials to work with, and each print is made, from start to finish, by hand. In 2018 I set up a darkroom to start printing at home, but then I decided to write another book and my fine art was put on hold. Till now.

I’m debuting this work with one of my all-time favorite pictures of Charlie, in platinum and palladium (50/50). I’m offering it for auction with 100% of the proceeds going to mutual aid. The funds will be donated to this reparations campaign: Homes for Black Women.

My friend Allison of Sunny Rising has coordinated this fundraiser with a great group of artists – there is beautiful work on offer, and you can find links to it all on her most recent post.

Charlie in Platinum & Palladium on Italian rag watercolor paper / image area measures 4″ x 5.5″ / archivally mounted on rice paper under glass / handmade barn wood frame measures 10″ x 12″

Please leave your bids in the comment section. The auction is also running on my instagram page – I’ll be cross-posting the highest bids from both places periodically so everyone knows what’s up (instagram seems to prohibit people without accounts from seeing anyone’s pages anymore, boo). Check back here to see if you’ve been outbid! The auction will close February 9th at 9PM MST.

I’m slowly resurfacing and will write more soon…. in the meantime, thank you for all the love messages – let’s share that love with this reparations campaign!