"Paul & Jerry's" ~ Palladium toned Kallitype

The time away has been focused on caregiving. A wife that has had surgery, mid August, and still in the hospital. There are days I am able to print, recently. The focus has been printing a series of images of Jerome, Arizona, a town I lived in fifty years ago. Now, quite different, yet, still Jerome. In the late sixties, early seventies, Jerome was a hippie town, with the shops and restaurants owned by granola types, getting away from the city life.

Most of the images are of the historic buildings, most of which date to late 19th century days, when Jerome was a copper mining town. Something like a billion dollars was  mined in that town over its lifetime, when Jenny Jerome was the name of two women; Sir Winston Churchill's mother, and Jenny Jerome the Madame, the richest person on Main street,  Wasn't around to capture that, although, I certainly would have, had I been around back then.

The prints in this series will all be palladium toned Kallitype prints; 11"x14" and 11"x17" respectively, depending on whether the image was captured using my Burke & James 5x7 view camera, or my Canon 20D, with the longer format. I have always framed my shots as I want them to print, edge to edge. No cropping intended. Unfortunately, the longer format images simply can't be edited down without losing the fuller essence of the image as a whole.

I use two density <curves> that I made using Paintshop Pro X9; Photoshop for digital photography. All the same tool, plus some special features. The shorter <curve> was made for printing platinum/palladium Na2 prints, and the longer density range <curve> was made for straight palladium printing, or Kallitypes. The print times between the two are approximately 8 minutes for the shorter <curve> and 14 minutes for the longer density <curve>. They end up very close to being the same. Very close but not the same. The longer <curve> creates a print with deeper blacks [D-Max] and less shadow detail. The shorter <curve> is slightly flatter print image, showing good middle tones, with good blacks, just not quite as deep. I print for the highlights, zone 7, so that remains a constant. This print was made using the shorter Na2 <curve> for better detail in a dark interior.

This image was taken in 1985, and those at the bar are the "old timers" of Jerome, the bartender known by everyone in town.

Palladium toned Kallitype

"Paul & Jerry's" 11"x17"

Jerome, Arizona