In a time that seems long ago and far far away, the earliest photographers made prints which appeared magically without developing. They would rinse and fix to display and extend the life of the image. More recently in the 20th Century portrait photographers used similar technology to make proof prints that would fade as they aged.

Now we make archival digital prints and have nearly forgotten the art of chemical printing. Many photographers have gladly forsaken silver-gelatin printing for the control ease and simplicity of inkjet. But many of us still enjoy the chemical processes—we cherish the journey as well as the destination. We can still buy 20th Century silver printing materials and an ambitious photographer can mix the chemicals necessary for 19th Century processes. Photographers who want to make prints using a historic style printing out paper (but don’t want to “roll their own”) now have a source for a new collodio-chloride printingout paper (POP). I spent several days in the lab testing the collodio-chloride paper and toners made by Alt Photo Products. POP is a contact printing process so my first tests were prints made from collodion wet-plate glass negatives. Using a print-ing frame made by Bostick and Sullivan I exposed test sheets using direct sunlight or on cloudy days I made exposures using an Arri 1K fresnel hot light.