For the Love of Cotton Rag: Exploring Ilford Cotton Rag Darkroom Paper by Jacqui Merhaut

Written by Jacqui Merhaut

I was online, adding to my cart, on a kick to restock my darkroom. I knew I needed photo paper and was ready to play around with some new sizes.

Clicking through a few options, it seemed there was something new on the market? Something new to me for sure. Ilford now made (always made?) a 100% cotton rag base photo paper. WHAT?!?

The finish – Pearl. The size – 5 x 7. The possibilities – no clue. That was the fun part.

This paper also boasted to have 300gsm, which I was unable to decipher the acronym of so I took to the internet. 300 grams per square meter – the weight of the paper. My college years in the graphic design field had me understanding how much paperweight can impact a final project. This paper was going to be significantly heavier than standard photo paper, and for this, I could not weight.

See what I did there?

Find Ilford Cotton Rag Darkroom Paper at B&H Photo.

The Unveiling: Working with Cotton Rag Darkroom Paper

When you pull a piece of cotton rag paper out of its box, you notice how different it is compared to the other papers you’ve used. The difference not only comes in the heavier paper weight and buttery texture, but there’s also a significant curl to the paper. What you realize next, is you have no clue which side of that paper the chemistry is on, so you take to experimenting and find it’s somewhat counter intuitive. The curled side up carries the chemistry.

You also find it needs a significant amount of light to garner any exposure, so your normal, quick paced exposure times of 3-7 seconds are out and replaced with longer times that you usually don’t work within. Your love of the #5 filter won’t help matters much because you naturally need more light when using good ole #5, but you learn quite quickly there is something really great here to play with.

This is a slow burn. It’s quiet and soft-spoken. A delicacy. You have the opportunity to make images soft with the weight and texture of the paper filling in the rest. It creates a feeling, this pull you in power, a reach out and touch it desire.

It is analog but amplified.

The Outcome

Cotton rag photo paper has been in my life for a couple of years now. I didn’t quite know what to do with it when I began. It was a lot of making images like I had made my other images – an image on paper – done – but with this paper, the exploration feels limitless, and the opportunities to go beyond standard photo on paper practices seem to appear everywhere.

Early Ethos

Collaborating with Other Artists

This cotton rag paper base gave me the opportunity to explore creating with others. I had long wanted to collaborate with some artists in my circle to see how we could converge. This cotton rag paper became the perfect outlet to allow our worlds to come together.

Maria Mungai is a printmaker. She has quite the extensive experience in many print genres and creates her art with much care and affection. I was so pleased when Maria accepted my invitation to collaborate and combine my black and white photo making with her multifaceted printmaking. We had so much fun looking over the outcome of our efforts!

Experimenting with Cotton Rag Paper

I began exploring the deconstructiveness of the cotton rag paper and how I could rebuild it – reshape it. At the core, this was cotton and what, if I’m working with cotton, am I able to do if I remove the boundaries that are the edges of this paper and create my own?

Conclusion

This cotton rag paper allows me a level of exploration that I hadn’t had before with prior photo papers. It’s been rewarding to both explore with others and explore within my own creativity. There is so much more to come!

Thank you so much, Jacqui! You can find more of Jacqui’s work on her website and Instagram.

Leave your questions about cotton rag darkroom paper below in the comments, and you can pick some up for yourself at B&H Photo.

Related Posts: