ICONIC PRINT

The last issue, we introduced you to Swiss-born award-winning international fashion, celebrity photographer, and director Markus Klinko (b. 1961), and as you may already know, his debut NFT series launched with Monegraph featuring provocative close-ups with an original soundtrack by Markus sold-out. Now his new collection Bowie The Platinum Edition has avid art collectors raving, including Grammy-award winning artist, The Weeknd, who has a piece prominently displayed in his penthouse.

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Klinko spent his early years training to become a classical harp soloist. After studying in Paris at the renowned Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, he signed a recording contract with EMI Classics, traveled the world as a soloist, performing with symphony orchestras, and even received a Grand Prix du Disque. A hand injury in 1994 forced Klinko to leave his career. "I decided to become a fashion photographer," he recalls. "Despite the fact that I've never taken a single photographer and that my only experience with photography was to be the subject of promotional shoots for my own music career!'

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Within a few years, the self-taught photographer was in high demand. His portfolio includes legendary album covers from David Bowie's Heathen, Beyonce's Dangerously in Love, and Mariah Carey's The Emancipation of Mimi, to name a few. Iconic brands LVMH, Nike, Pepsi, Lancôme, and L'Oréal Paris, have commissioned Klink to create various ad campaigns. After twenty years of strictly focusing on commission work, he began exhibiting his work in galleries and museums worldwide.

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For people who collect photographs, platinum/palladium prints are renowned for their beauty, archival stability, and unique, one-of-a-kind print statement. Made from the salts of platinum and palladium, these prints are also called "platinotypes" or "platinum" prints. Platinum and palladium are noble metals on the Periodic Table and are resistant to oxidation. The platinum salt emulsion is embedded into the fiber of the paper during the printing process.

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As with most historical photographic processes, a platinum print is made by placing the negative and emulsion-coated paper in direct contact. Therefore, the size of the photographic print is equal to the size of the negative.

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Platinum prints have a different "look" from silver gelatin or digital prints. All platinum prints have a matte, not glossy surface, because the sensitizer is absorbed into the paper rather than sitting on the surface. A platinum print also has a more gradual tonal change from black to white. To the eye accustomed to the punch of a silver gelatin print, a platinum print will often feel "softer" or lower in contrast. In reality, there are actually more steps between pure black and pure white in platinum prints than in a silver gelatin print. This contributes to the deeper, richer feeling you experience when looking at these prints.

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