Vouloir C'est Pouvoir (where there's a will, there's a way) is a guide to a variation on a theme. The theme is the hand-coated platinum/palladium print. The variation is the use of a substrate once believed unsuitable for hand coating. The book is intended to help anyone familiar with hand coating cotton papers learn to achieve even coatings of platinum and palladium solutions on fixed-out baryta paper.



The first edition of Vouloir C'est Pouvoir was written in 1999 on an ancient Mac Classic computer powered by a very athletic hamster running in a wheel. All my printing was done in an unfinished basement where the temperature and humidity conspired to make achieving a good coating next to impossible. Since then, I have moved up to a bigger, faster “dual core” Mac - powered by two hamsters - and now print in a much warmer space with humidity to spare.



As a result, I have been able to include photographs of the coating procedure in this edition and I’ve made a few adjustments to the technique, simplifying it somewhat. But my goal remains the same: to inspire alternative process printers everywhere to work with fixed-out baryta paper so they may enjoy the unique look it brings to alternative process prints.