Glossary
Palladium print
A less-expensive version of the platinum
print, made on paper coated with a palladium compound.
Panorama
A broad, sweeping view of subject matter. Commonly used in landscape, seascape, and cityscape photography, panoramic images have
a greatly enlarged lateral field. Panoramic cameras, wide-angle lenses, or ordinary cameras can be used to produce a panoramic
photograph. Many varieties of panoramic cameras were invented from the Daguerrean era onward.
Parmelian print
A type of gelatin silver print. The term was coined by publisher Jean Chambers Moore to describe works in a 1927 portfolio by Ansel
Adams (1902-1984). At the time, creative photography was not considered a fine art, and "parmelian print" suggested that a portfolio consisted
of fine art prints instead of photographs.
Photogram
A unique photograph created without a camera by placing opaque or translucent objects on the surface of light-sensitive paper. When
the objects and paper are exposed to light, the resulting image is created. Flat white areas appear where opaque objects had been, midtones
from translucent objects and various shadow patterns, and darker areas where the paper was exposed to light. After exposure, the image is
developed and fixed.
While shadow images have been captured on paper throughout the history of photography, photograms are best known as an
avant-garde expression used by artists in search of an abstract vocabulary just after World War I. "Rediscovered" independently by Christian
Schad (1894-1982), Man Ray (1890-1976), and László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), photograms are also known as "Schadographs"
or "Rayographs" after Schad and Man Ray, who practiced the technique in the 1920s.
Photography
The art and science of producing images on a sensitized surface by the action of light energy.
Photogravure
A photomechanical process (heliogravure in French) using an etching method to reproduce the appearance of a
continuous range of tones in a photograph. A copper plate dusted with fine granular resin is heated, covered with a sheet of
bichromate gelatin tissue, and contact-printed with a positive transparency. The gelatin, which hardens on exposure to light,
protects certain areas. After the soft gelatin is washed away, the plate is then etched to varying depths in an acid bath, according to
the tonality of the original image. Thus the highlights are protected from the acid, whereas the shadow area becomes
deeply etched. When printed, the ink fills the etched area and the tonality and details of the original positive transfer onto paper.
Invented by Karel Klí (1841-1926) in 1879, the photogravure process is well-suited for reproducing images in large
editions. This improvement on the technique of producing a printing plate from a photograph evolved from the traditional
printmaking process of etching, as well as Talbot's photoglyphic engraving, an early photogravure process. Pictorialist photographers
in particular liked the grainy tones of photogravures, and most of the photographs in
Camera Work are reproduced by this process.
Photomechanical transfer print
An image printed in a printing press with the use of a camera. Beginning in the 1870s, the photomechanical process
produced permanent, multiple reproductions of photographs in ink using printing plates. A photographic plate is inked and the
image transferred to paper. The three general categories of photomechanical processes are intaglio, relief, and planographic.
collotypes, photogravures, and
woodburytypes are popular photomechanical prints.
Pinhole camera
A lensless camera with a pinhole through which light passes. The image of the view outside the camera is not as sharp as
one produced through a camera with a lens.
Platinum print
An image contact-printed in daylight or ultraviolet light on paper that has been sensitized with iron salts and a
platinum compound and then developed in potassium oxalate. Photographers favored its broad range of subtle, silvery-gray
tones. Because platinum is a more stable metal than silver, platinum prints are more permanent than photographs that use silver
to form the image.
The process was invented and patented by the Englishman William Willis (1841-1923) in 1873. Prepared platinum
papers were available commercially as early as 1878. During World War I, the raw materials for platinum papers became
expensive and their popularity waned. Commercial production was discontinued in 1937. An alternative, cheaper process using
the metal palladium replaced the comparable platinum print process.
palladium prints also have a subtle silver-gray tonality,
but are warmer toned. Today, some photographers are again making platinum and/or palladium prints by coating their
own papers.
Polaroid polacolor
See dye diffusion transfer process color print.
Printing-out paper (p.o.p)
Light-sensitive, photographic paper that permits contact-printing in sunlight, without the use of chemicals.
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