Figure 1.--These two unidentified American boys are dressed in identical striped tunic suits with Norfolk styling. Notice the Peter Pan collars and scarves. Their tunic suit has straight knee panrts rather than bloomer knickers. We are not sure about the color, but the boys seem to be wearing black long stockings. The silver-gelatin print was take at the Mumper studio, but we don't know where it was located. We believe the portrait was taken in he late-1910s, in part because of the low-cut shoes.

Gelatin silver printing medium is the photographic process envolves a suspension of silver salts in gelatin which is then coated onto acetate film or fiber-based or resin coated paper. It is then allowed to dry. It is referred to as a dry plate in contrasdt to the tricky wet plates tat early photographers like Mathew Brady had to use. Silver gelitan materials can remain stable for months or even years. Various individuals worked to perfect the priocess. The first workable process was the work of R. L. Maddox (1871). Charles Harper Bennet made substantial improements, especially in light sensiutivity (1878). The basic process was to expose small crystals (grains) of silver salts (commonly silver bromide or silver chloride) to light. This liberates a few atoms of free metallic silver which are the latent image. This latent image is relatively stable and will thus persist for an extended period, even months as long as the film is kept dark and cool. The exposed plate/film is then developed in a three step process. First the film/plate is developed using solutions to reduce the free silver atoms. The image is amplified as the silver salts near the free silver atoms are also reduced to metallic silver. The strength of the developing sollution , temperature, and developing time all affect the contrast of the final image. Thus the developoment was an important part of photograpy. The second step is the stop bath. This neutralizes the developer. The third step is called fixing. Once development is complete, the undeveloped silver salts must be removed by a fixing sollution (sodium thiosulphate or ammonium thiosulphate) The fourth and final step is to was the film in clean water. The resulting image is metallic silver embedded in the gelatin coating. It is a negative. Essentially the same process is used to print the negative. The process was not perfected on a commercial basis until the turn-of-the 20th century. Only then do we see large numbers of silver-gelatin prints which rapidly replaced the albumen prints. It was a major advance in photography. It became the principal printing process in the 20th century. It was a visually appealing way to print images. The process can be easily identified. With age, the silver in dark areas of the print is often visible at certain light angles. Currently available black-and-white films and printing papers use the silver-gelatin process. Black and white photography sharpoly declined in popularity when color printing using dyes rather than silver nitrates became common in the 1970s. The process is till in use today as black and white is considered artistic by some photographers.

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Created: 1:43 AM 7/28/2009
Last updated: 1:43 AM 7/28/2009