Salted Paper Printing: A Step-by-Step Manual Highlighting Contemporary Artists is a book about the first photography-on-paper process from the dawn of photography’s history. In Salted Paper Printing this 19th century process is updated with 21st century digital negative methods. With a few inexpensive ingredients such as ordinary table salt and silver nitrate, evocative hand-coated prints can be created from a camera as simple as a smartphone. Salted Paper Printing is divided into two parts, richly illustrated with close to 400 photographs. Part One is a complete how-to on the salted paper process from simple to complex, with an extensive troubleshooting guide illustrated with 70 photographic examples. Part One includes creative ideas to push the boundaries of the salted paper print, such as handcoloring and printing salt in combination with gum bichromate. Part Two is devoted to contemporary salted paper artists who share their methods and secrets to creating their beautiful salted paper prints. Topics that the book covers are: a succinct bulleted timeline of key events in salted paper’s history; how to organize the salted paper “dimroom”; what the best chemistry supplies, equipment, and papers to use are; a step-by-step digital negative method; how to practice photogenic drawing, William Henry Fox Talbot’s original salted paper process; simple and advanced methods of salted paper printing; how to salt, salt-size, and sensitize paper with traditional and animal-friendly methods; using the sun or an ultraviolet light source to best expose your image; step-by-step processing directions; toning the salted paper print with gold, platinum, and other metals; troubleshooting salted paper, including lots of photographs of common issues; printing gum over salted paper to add gloss, tone, or full color to the salt print; handcoloring salted paper, printing cyanotype and salt together, and other creative suggestions; finishing, framing, and storing salt prints with examples of varnish, mat and frame choices; contemporary artists’ advice, techniques, and works in 2-, 4-, or 6-page spreads. Salted Paper Printing provides much for the beginning salt enthusiast as well as for the advanced practitioner. Backed with thorough research from 180 books, journals, and magazine articles from 1839 to the present day, there is enough information to provide inspiration and proof of salted paper’s original— and continuing—place in historic and contemporary photography.
