Laurent Lafolie - Photography laboratory and imaging workshop




FR \|	LABORATORY & WORKSHOP \| PLATINUM-PALLADIUM \| LARGE FORMAT \| PRINTING \| TOOLS \| TRAINING COURSES

Training Courses

The content and duration of courses are tailored to the needs of each participant. Training courses and apprenticeships are for photographers and visual artists.

The workshop regularly runs courses offering an introduction to or the chance to learn printing techniques.
The content and duration of the courses are tailored to each participant. The courses are aimed at photographers, visual artists, etc., who can benefit from professional training. They can also be for amateurs who wish to develop their printing skills for their artistic projects.

We also offer on-site courses in schools (including secondary schools, sixth forms, etc.) generally in collaboration with art centres.

Stage Argyrotype pour le Sept Off de Nice et la Ville de Vence

Clarification d’un tirage platine-palladium

Argyrotype apprenticeship with Sept Off in Nice and the town of Vence

Clearing a platinum-palladium print

Platinum-Palladium

Over the past few years, the platinum-palladium process has become very popular, especially with the arrival of computer tools.

Préparation de la chimie - Formation avec Mikhail Cherkassov

Préparation de la chimie - Formation avec Mikhail Cherkassov

Preparation of the chemicals


Preparation of the sensitive solution		Retouching of a palladium print

Sensibilisation d'une feuille de papier Arches Platine 56x76 cm 145g

Sensitization of a sheet of Arches Platine paper, 145g, 56x76cm

Over the past few years, the platinum-palladium process has become very popular, especially with the arrival of computer tools. Combined with the use of such tools, prints of an unprecedented precision can be made through the platinum-palladium process. Furthermore, the process involves a manual production process. As such, it allows for experimentation, research and creation for photographers who consider their prints more as photographic objects rather than simple media for their pictures. Therefore, artists, professional photographers, and diligent amateurs can all successfully experiment with the platinum-palladium process.

PLATINUM-PALLADIUM
Invented in 1873 by the Englishman William Willis (1841-1923), the platinum-palladium process is a contact printing process with distinct visual and tactile qualities. A platinum-palladium print’s appearance and feel to the touch are very similar to those of an engraving. The image’s slightly warm, fine, subtle and matte rendering gives it a unique and timeless character. In fact, the image is actually embedded in the paper’s fibres. The papers suited to the process are composed of natural fibres (linen, cotton, mulberry, etc.), with no colourants or additives. In terms of sustainability, the platinum-palladium process is the most stable photographic printing process currently available. A picture printed with the platinum-palladium process lasts just as long as the paper that it is printed on. It is important to note that platinum-palladium prints are very often valued by museums, galleries and collectors.

AIM
The course is designed to introduce and teach the platinum-palladium contact printing technique to one or two people. The aim is to make the best use of the allocated time so that each person may produce his or her own prints at the end of the course.

COURSE CONTENT
Training is adapted to the needs of trainees, and it offers the opportunity to acquire or broaden one’s knowledge of the process and its practice. All of the stages of the platinum-palladium process are taught and practiced: the creation of the inkjet negative transparency, the preparation of chemicals, and the creation of prints.

1/ Theoretical presentation of the process and of exhibition prints

2/ List of material, consumables and suppliers

3/ Creation of inkjet negative transparencies from films digitized at the workshop or from digital files*:
- Preparation and rendering of digital files on a retouch software
- High-definition inkjet print on negative transparency

4/ Implementation:
- Preparing the sensitizer
- Preparation of chemicals
- Choice of paper

5/ Practice:
- Coating with sensitive solution
- Ultraviolet exposure
- Processing, clearing, washing
- Retouch, finishing**

* The trainees should preferably bring their own negatives or digital files
** The trainees may keep their negative transparencies and prints at the end of the course

This training course takes place over 2 to 5 days.

MATERIAL
Computer equipment
- Mac Pro and Eizo CG 31" et 24'' monitors
- Creo IQSmart3 and Epson V700 scanners
- Canon large format colour printer and Epson/Piezography® large format black and white printer

Printing
- Fully-equipped laboratory
- Drying and humidification chambers
- Vacuum UV exposure unit
- Vertical print washer with water pressure
- Finish: vacuum hot press, electric paper cutter, etc...

Argyrotype and Cyanotype

Argyrotypes and cyanotypes are contact printing processes that were invented at the dawn of the development of photography and updated in 1990 by chemist and photographer Mike Ware.


Argyrotype print on cotton paper, 20x25 cm Training course with Le Point du Jour art center and Millet high school		Cyanotype print on cotton paper Sandrine Marc

Just like platinum-palladium prints, argyrotype and cyanotype prints become one with the paper (the image is in fact embedded in the paper’s fibres whereas in other printing techniques, the image is on the paper’s surface). The particularity of the cyanotype process is that it produces Prussian Blue (blue-cyan) prints whereas the images obtained through the argyrotype process are brown in colour.

METHOD
Since the implementation of these artisanal processes is simple and inexpensive, it is possible for anyone to try them out.A photographic negative is applied to a sheet of paper* that has been sensitized with a paintbrush beforehand. Both the negative and the sheet of paper are exposed to sunlight or to UV for several minutes in an exposure unit, and during this time the image appears. Finally, the print is developed and washed in several trays filled with water (plus a fixing bath in the case of the argyrotype process).

This training course runs over 1 to 5 days. It can be combined with the platinum-palladium training course.

* Other paper types that are more porous may be used for these processes, especially for the creation of photograms.

CONTENT OF COURSES
1/ Theoretical presentation of the process

2/ Choice of paper (or of the material)

3/ Practice of the process:
- Application of the sensitive solution coating with a brush
- Exposure to sunlight or to UV
- Processing, washing and drying

Reinterpretation and Printing

The processing and the reinterpretation of an image, the printing and the choice of printing material are themselves an integral part of an artist’s work.

Impression d’un tirage 50x75 cm sur papier coton - Formation avec Isabelle Souriment

Impression d’un tirage 50x75 cm sur papier coton - Formation avec Isabelle Souriment

Print on cotton paper, 50x75 cm

Even though this process is linked to the photographer’s own sensibility, approach and experience, it also relates to the tools or the techniques that have to be understood and learned.

AIM
Through the creation of a black and white and a colour photo print project, this training course consists of learning the inkjet printing process on Japanese or Western paper types.

This training course runs over 1 to 5 days.

COURSE CONTENT
All the stages of the process are taught, from digital acquisition to finishing (the content of the course is adapted to the trainee’s needs):
- High-definition digitization of negatives or opaque documents up to A3+ format
- Paper/printer characterization and screen calibration with a spectrophotometer
- Reinterpretation and image processing on Photoshop CC: Preparation of digital files, adjustment of white and black levels, reinterpretation of the images with curves and masks, printing configuration, etc.
- Choice of paper: Japanese paper (Awagami) and/or Western paper (Hahnemühle, Canson, etc.)
- Printing: BW Piezography® on Epson 9880 large format printer and/or colour pigment prints on Canon IPF8400 large format printer
- Finishing, presentation (exhibition prints, creation of a portfolio, etc.)

MATERIAL
- Mac Pro and Eizo CG 31" and 24'' monitors
- X-Rite i1 Photo Pro 2 spectrophotometer
- Creo IQSmart3 and Epson V700 scanners
- Epson 9880 Piezography® black and white inkjet large format printer
- Canon IPF8400 colour pigment inkjet large format printer
- Finishing: mounting press, electric paper cutter, etc.

Laurent Lafolie - Photography laboratory and imaging workshop

12, rue Orbe
64270 Salies-de-Béarn - France

C +33 (0)6 32 22 51 11 - T +33 (0)5 59 38 99 60
email : lafolie.laurent@orange.fr

CREDITS & LEGAL TERMS