Can I contact print a solograph?

This question is as simple as it sounds, what I want to do is contact print a solograph onto another piece of photo paper. Will this destroy the image after one shot like scanning onto the computer? Or will I have a couple chances to get it right? I would like to have a copy made entirely via the analog process, as I like the idea of that more than simply scanning the picture, which is almost guaranteed to destroy the original image in one shot.

By the way, I have a proper darkroom with an enlarger that I have lots of control over, if that helps answer the question.

I was hoping someone would answer your question, and I’m curious about it. I do solargraphs and just getting started with darkroom work.

You’re hoping to shine light through one piece of paper (the solargraph) onto another? Which would then give you a positive image on the second piece of paper. Hmm…

I would guess there were no answers because no one here has tried it.

Why would it destroy the original? Haven't you fixed the image?

I guess I don't understand the process you are using to make a Solograph.

There should be no reason you couldn't, if its just a paper based image. Paper negatives are used a lot for alternative processes, so why should it be any different?

Try it.

Photo paper is pretty cheap compared to about anything else in a darkroom...

Kino said:

I would guess there were no answers because no one here has tried it.

Why would it destroy the original? Haven't you fixed the image?

I guess I don't understand the process you are using to make a Solograph.

There should be no reason you couldn't, if its just a paper based image. Paper negatives are used a lot for alternative processes, so why should it be any different?

Try it.

Photo paper is pretty cheap compared to about anything else in a darkroom...

Click to expand...

You can’t fix a solargraph print, sadly. So any light will degrade the print until it is completely obscured.

Solograph or Solargraph?

Here is a link where the photographer scans his Solargraps...



Here are resources on Photrio that outlines a method of fixing a Solargraph: