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John Richardson was in Barga during the summer of 2001 with his huge11 x 14 inch camera photographing some of the narrow streets of Barga Vecchia. These images and others will be put on line once he finishes his European tour and returns to his studio in the States. The turn of the century saw platinum printing at its height
of popularity. World War I brought a decline in platinum printing because the metal was needed for the war effort. Kodak halted manufacture of the paper in 1916. By 1941 there were no papers being manufactured at all. Photographers had to coat their own. The process virtually disappeared. Today platinum printing is enjoying a revival. Its superior permanence, long tonal scale, approachability, and the fact that one needs no darkroom to print make it popular. The one drawback is that it is a contact printing process, meaning that the photographer must have a negative the size of the final print to be made. Thus these photographers often use very large cameras.
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