"The Nazarene"
Will Gibson

Media: Platinum Palladium
Vellum Gold Leaf
Price: $600


Process:
This image is part of my Alhambra Farewell series, documenting my family home of 47 years after my parents died. It was captured on 4 x 5 film with the only light being a hand held micro flashlight. The subject is a model that my great grandfather made while onboard the Nazarene clipper in a 3 year journey from Liverpool to Cathay and back ending in 1872. The negative was scanned and a digital negative printed on a clear film. This was then contact printed to a pre-coated sheet of vellum paper with platinum and palladium salts and exposed in UV light. After processing and flattening, the back of the print is gilded with (in this case imitation) gold leaf. At this point a spray varnish is applied to the back to secure the gilding and then on the front to reveal this final result. Only at this point does the vellum turn from translucent to almost transparent and the image is then shown on a bed of gold.

Note: The basics of the platinum/palladium digital process and the platinum/palladium on vellum over gold leaf printing were pioneered by the juror of this show, Dan Burkholder. As in much of the Alternative Process photographic world, I have modified those processes and it is with those modifications that I have taught the techniques at Palomar College.