Frank J. Trost 1902 Fire at Spindletop Gelatin Silver Print

➼ History & Context

Spindletop Oilfield, the well that famously gushed for 9 days straight when first drilled in 1901 and ushered in the Texas Oil Boom, caught fire on September 12, 1902 from a discarded cigar. The fire quickly spread to 20 separate wells, several storage tanks, and a pumping station.

The photographer Frank Trost from Port Arthur, Texas caught the iconic images of the day, smoke billowing through the air, and recorded the event for posterity through his striking works.

➼ Silverprint Photography

Gelatin silver photographic printing process is the most commonly used chemical process in black & white photography and the basis for modern color photography processes. First introduced in 1871, gelatin silver printing became widespread in the 1890s.

Exposure to a negative allows the forming of an invisible, latent image as silver halides form small specks of silver metal on the surface of the paper wherever light strikes. The clearest parts of the negative therefore create the most silver, and become the darkest areas of the final print.

With immersion in a development fluid, the latent silver particles become visible as metallic silver, and the strength, temperature, and time left in the fluid gives the photographer control over the visible contrast of the final image.

A stop bath removes any remaining development fluid before the fixer step which removes any remaining unexposed silver halide. Following a water bath, the image is fixed within a clear gelatin layer.

Sometimes photographers would then add a toning layer using selenium, gold, or sulfur, for aesthetic purposes as well as aiding permanence.

Finished gelatin silver prints are composed of four layers: the paper base, formerly made from cotton and wood pulp since WWI; the baryta coating that smooths the surface of the paper and prepares it to receive a clean image; the gelatin binder holding the silver grains of the photographic image; and the protective overcoat layer of hardened gelatin.

As they age, silverprint photographs can deteriorate from the silver particles oxidizing, which can lead to yellowing and fading, though toning increases its resilience.