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 Annie Brigman, "The Bubble" variant poses The Gorge Eastman House has recently launched Notes On Photographs which aims to compile and illustrate relevant information that characterizes a photographer’s work. It intends to be used as a reference database for illustrating key attributes documented by conservators, curators, collectors and scholars dedicated to the study and observation of photographs. The capabilities of the wiki system allow for the resource to be a stage of discussion on meaningful information in better understanding fine photographs. There is currently a demonstrated need for a greater sophistication in the study of photographs. This is due essentially to three aspects: the rise in market value of these objects, the lack of reference resources for works of masters, and the closure of chemical imaging that is leading to a need for re-reading the history of photography. Curators and collectors have been calling upon conservators to answer questions relating to issues of authenticity and understanding of photographs–authorship, photographic processing, dating and provenance. Conservators, who have the tools and knowledge to analyze photographic materials, have in recent years directed the research focus towards characterization protocols. In order to compile and surpass platforms of knowledge it is important to create reference resources. Newly developed imaging and information tools allow for the creation of such a resource using the wiki system that will be added to and serve conservators, curators, registrars, catalogers, and all those involved in the study, observation and valuation of photographs. Visit the site.
 Wet Day on the Boulevard, 1894, Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz: In-Sight Evenings: Looking Deeper and Differently at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum @ 485 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138
In 1969 the Fogg Museum received a selection of photogravures by the legendary impresario of American modernism, Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946). Drawn from the artist’s first portfolio of his own work, Picturesque Bits of New York and Other Studies (1897), the images signaled a critical sea change in Stieglitz’s approach to the fine art of photography, while their acquisition marked the advent of a new direction in collecting for Harvard’s art museums.
This In-Sight Evenings series features a talk by Deborah Martin Kao, Chief Curator; Richard L. Menschel Curator of Photography; Acting Head, Division of Modern and Contemporary Art, Harvard Art Museums on Stieglitz and his seminal work.
Wed. September 22, 2010, 6 pm – 8pm.
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum
Tickets are $25.
Space is limited and registration is encouraged. For a full listing of member discounts, to register, or to request an In-Sight brochure, call 617-495-0534 or email artmuseum_membership@harvard.edu.
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
March 16 – June 20, 2010
From the museum’s website…..
In 1895, only ten years after abandoning medicine to take up photography, Peter Henry Emerson published Marsh Leaves, his last illustrated book. Today it is difficult to imagine the feelings these landscapes inspired in readers of the time – images as uncontrived and evanescent as those in his first collection, Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads published in 1886, were a concentrated representation of rural life.
There was a clear development between the two books from the pictorial model of Jean-François Millet to a style influenced by James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Japanese art, from a documentary approach to pure poetry. Although we in the 21st century can immediately appreciate the formal radicalism that Emerson finally achieved, it is more difficult for us to imagine the fierce aesthetic debates that his first masterstroke aroused at the time.
His writings, as well as formulating Naturalistic photography, are a reminder that below the calm waters of this timeless vision of rural England lurked one of the most virulent polemicists in the history of photography.
 Two color photogravure, 11” x 11”. Courtesy of Moeller Fine Art, NY.
THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS ANNOUNCES 2010 ART AWARD WINNERS
New York, March 25, 2010 — The American Academy of Arts and Letters announced today the eight artists who
will receive its 2010 awards in art. The awards will be presented in New York City in May at the Academy’s
annual Ceremonial. The art prizes, totaling $62,500, honor both established and emerging artists. The award
winners were chosen from a group of 37 artists who had been invited to participate in the Invitational Exhibition of
Visual Arts, which opened on March 11, 2010. The Invitational Exhibition continues through April 11, 2010, and
features over 120 paintings, sculptures, photographs and works on paper. The members of this year’s award
selection committee were: William Bailey, Chuck Close, Eric Fischl, Jane Freilicher, Judy Pfaff, Martin Puryear,
Robert Ryman, and Ursula von Rydingsvard.
Five Academy Awards in Art of $7500 each are given to honor exceptional accomplishment and to encourage creative work. This year’s winners include:
GABRIELLE BAKKER
LOTHAR OSTERBURG
JULIANNE SWARTZ
TOM UTTECH
STANLEY WHITNEY
 Brassai, Open Gutter from "Paris by Night" 1933
Brassai’s Paris de Nuit is highlighted in Andrew Roth’s 101 Best Photography Books, “The photogravures are so rich that the sooty blacks still look like they’ll rub off the page… Brassai became a master of drawing luminosity from the darkness.”
Was Roth correct in referring to the images in this book as photogravures? Just what does the term ‘photogravure’ really mean? Truth of the matter is that while the images in Paris de Nuit are by strict definition photogravures, they are ’sheet-fed’ photogravures which cannot really be compared in quality or craftsmanship to ‘hand-pulled’ photogravures.
Sheet fed photogravures were printed by relatively high volume presses and are typically found on relatively low-quality paper. Production efficiency and automation trumping aesthetics, the ink was thinned with solvents in order to be able to be applied mechanically. The ink was also applied thinly to aid in quick drying. Further compromising quality, a grid like screen was used to generate the gradation of tone rather the more organic and time-consuming aquatint dust used in the hand-pulled photogravure process. So while sheet fed photogravures did reproduce images in ink with an intaglio plate, that’s where the comparison ends.
The photogravures highlighted on this site are all handmade. They are old school. The tone defining grain is organic rather than a screen. The ink is thick and rubbed deep into the plate by hand. The plate is run through the press slowly, one sheet at a time, to insure the complete transfer of the pockets of ink deep into the oftentimes hand handmade tissue or paper.
It is no wonder photogravure is so misunderstood (translate: undervalued.) If the same word is used throughout the photography collecting community to describe both something that is machine made AND something that is hand-made, who wouldn’t be confused?
 Roger Fenton, Water Gate, Raglan Castle, 1856 Google alerts are great if you are searching for information on obscure subjects. That is exactly how I discovered Paul Morgan. Paul was offering a talk at the National Media Museum entitled ‘Paul Pretsch and Photogalvanography 1850 – 1870′. Surprised not only to find someone interested in the subject but also to see one of photography’s most prestigious institutions offering a talk on photogralvonagraphy, I emailed Paul to introduce myself and see if he would let me read his lecture.
Paul and I have since had in depth correspondence about Pretsch. He has provided me with a plethora of images and text regarding Pretsch, photogalvanography and Fenton. Eventually, I asked for Paul’s bio. Expecting to see something like Professor of Art History – Oxford, I was surprised to see that he is a layperson with a passion for creating, learning and writing — rendering his work on Pretsch all the more impressive.
From Paul’s bio….”I was educated at Rossall, then took a degree in Communication Studies at Aston in Birmingham. Have been through quite a variety of jobs, but the main spell was living and working with profoundly handicapped youngsters. Have always been involved in the arts, my own output including painting, drawing, photography, poetry, drama, and prose. Usually occupied in writing of some variety, in latter years mainly odd articles, covering subjects from local history to Captain Morgan the pirate. My interest in Pretsch came about from finding some photogalvanographic prints, but very little information about them. I ended up spending a decade intermittently pursuing the full story. Now have turned my attention to an investigation of the Battle of Loos in 1915, where my maternal Grandfather died.”
Paul has generously agreed to let me publish his work on Pretsch in the text section of the site. It is as comprehensive essay on Photogalvanography you’ll find, celebrating the forgotten innovation that lead to the first published photographic art portfolio in ink – Photographic Art Treasures.
Thank you Paul.
 Theodor and Oscar Hofmeister, The Solitary Horseman, 1904
Swann Galleries Photographs and Photographic Literature
Sale 2191, October 22, 2009
Camera Work made a strong showing at Swann last month. While many lots in the sale passed or sold within or below their estimates, seven of the ten Camera Work lots commanded prices that exceeded their high estimates (including buyer’s premium.)
Numbers 2 & 19 $5,280
Numbers 7 & 8 $3,360
Numbers 13 & 15 $6,960
Numbers 16, 17 & 18 $4,560
Number 22 $3,360
Numbers 25 & 31 $6,480
Number 27 $4,560
To learn more about Camera Work pricing, visit Photogravure Gallery.
This summer Eric Lutz, Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs for the St. Louis Art Museum, asked me to give a talk to the museum’s Friends of Photography collectors group. It was my first opportunity to present my research to a captive audience. I was concerned that it might be hard to fill the 90 minutes with relevant information, so I edited together a Keynote presentation complete with video clips, sound bites and fancy graphics.
The problem was, I never timed it. Well best laid plans…turns out the talk I prepared would have taken 90 hours! I shifted from plan A to just winging it and the 90 minutes went by in a flash and resulted in just a brief overview. The good news is everybody not only stayed awake, but also left excited about photogravure. Eric later said it was some of the best group energy he had seen at a Friends talk.
The experience was an affirmation that the topic is broad, relevant, rich in detail and able to be appreciated by a wide audience.
Thanks to David Spencer forh is help and for supplying this image of Karl Klic’s first published photogravure.
“There is a sense of panic out there…” were the words of Dick Sullivan, proprietor of Bostick-Sullivan. “Without it, photogravure in its present form will cease to exist. End of story,” were Craig Zammiello’s words. ”This is very big!!!! and harrowing!” said Jon Goodman.
What is all the fuss about? Well it appears as though Autotype, the only manufacturer of pigmented gelatin tissue, a material critical to the photogravure process, has decided to cease production… “It is with sadness that after 100 years of supply, MacDermid Autotype is now forced to discontinue the manufacture of Gravure Pigment Papers and films due to the withdrawal of two unique raw materials.”
Without this material, practicing photogravure ateliers have two choices – make their own gelatin tissue (a laborious and unpredictable prospect) or practice polymer photogravure – a distant second choice and not an option for purists.
Hopefully Richard Sullivan will come to the rescue. He is versed in manufacturing carbon tissue and is working diligently to save photogravure. Talking with him today, it appears as though he is making positive strides toward a product that might just be better than Artotype’s (thicker – allowing more depth in the etch). Too complicated for this layperson, the status of the situation can be followed on Richard’s forum, which – if you take the time to read it, illustrates just how complex this process is.
By the way, I must admit I was pleased to hear Richard, a legend in the world of alternative process, tell me that photogravure was among his top top three of all photographic processes when it comes to beauty.
 Robert Adams always wanted to try photogravure. He admires its tactile qualities as well as its rich tone. This series of images is from his book, Harney County Oregon and was printed in collaboration with Paul Taylor of Rennaisance Press. The project was co-published by Mathew Marks Gallery and Fraenkel Gallery. An Art:21 interview of Robert discussing the project can be found here.
 James Craig Annan is under recognized in today’s photography scene. He was not, however, overlooked by Stieglitz during the peak years of the Photo-Secession and the publication of Camera Work. Just a year before Stieglitz introduced Paul Strand in Camera Work 48, he devoted an entire issue to Annan’s photographs from Spain. This somber, quiet, introspective body of work was born out of the most ordinary subject matter. It is reticent, reserved and tenderly beautiful. The signed prints are from the collection of Raimondi Antonio who died shortly after World War I.
 Mrs. N. Gray Bartlett distinguished herself as an amateur photographer at a time when relatively few women were involved in the art. An active member of the Chicago Camera Club, she displayed her work in several exhibitions, receiving recognition for idealized and sentimental imagery of women and children posed in outdoor settings… Her books, printed in high-quality tissue photogravure, combined photographs, fanciful lettering and whimsical drawings and exemplify the creative opportunity that photogravure offered to combine photography and illustration (GEH, Imagining Paradise, White, From the mundane to the magical, 65) Find here examples from A Girl I Know.
 George Davison’s innovative impressionist photographs turned the heads of the Photographic Society of Great Britain in the 1890’s. Davison’s use of a pinhole lens resulted in photographs that were difficult to distinguish from paintings. And although this particular photographic technique came to represent all that was wrong with photography’s struggle to be recognized as art, it has found its place in history as a distinctive early phase of the pictorial movement. A signed photogravure from this period is rare – especially one originally in the collection of Margaret Harker and published in her book, The Linked Ring: The Secession Movement in Photography in Britain, 1892 – 1910, London: Heinemann, 1979
 Die Kunst in der Photographie. These two images, one by Constance Puyo and the other by Ernest Ashton, exemplify photogravure’s capacity to offer a quality of print that is uniquely beautiful. Although historically forgotten, they will always remain highlights of this collection.
 Peter Henry Emerson’s most distinguished and most impressionistic work is considered Marsh Leaves, his last published book and one of only two in which the photogravures were printed by Emerson himself. This may be the earliest body of photographic work to show Japanese influence. The misty quality he achieves in these landscapes is also strongly reminiscent of Whistler’s ‘Nocturnes’. (Life and Landscape: P.H. Emerson Art & Photography in East Anglia 1885-1900, p. 39) This collection of prints was exhibited by the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, The J. Paul Getty Museum, and Chrysler Museum of Art between 2006 and 2008.
 Roger Fenton is relevant in the study of the history of photogravure from at least two perspectives. He has been credited with the birth of photojournalism when in 1855, The Illustrated London News published examples from The Exhibition of Photographic Pictures Taken in the Crimea (Farber, Great News Photos and the Stories Behind Them, pp. 12-13) And in 1856 Fenton managed the Photographic Department and photographed for the Photo-Galvanographic Company in London, which published, “Photographic Art Treasures” – the first periodical devoted to artistic photographic reproduction illustrated by photomechanical process. The published photogalvanographs were strongly criticized in the photographic press for their heavy retouching. Today not only are they charming, but also are rare examples from the evolution of photomechanical reproduction and photogravure. (Eder, 582)
 J Dudley Johnston, elected to the Linked Ring in 1907, was twice president of the Royal Photographic Society where he played a key role in starting the Society’s permanent collection. Johnston became one of the earliest photographic historians and his awareness of the history of the emergence of photography doubtlessly influenced his own photographic work. Margaret Harker in her The Linked Ring: The Secession Movement in Photography in Britain, 1892 – 1910, considered Johnston a leading Secessionist… ‘The more adventurous of the Secessionists explored the visual world afresh, breaking away from what had become established forms of picture making by photography.’ Most of Johnston’s work is to be found in the collection of the Royal Photographic Society, now at the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television Bradford. It is rare to find examples on the market. This photogravure from one of Johnston’s most famous images was purchased from the collection of Margaret Harker and happens to represent its commencement, for it is notated on the back “No.1 – the first photograph in the Harker collection.”
 Unai San Martin has won accolades as one of Spain’s most accomplished printmakers (Premio Nacional de Grabado, 2002; Joan Miro Foundation, Mallorca.) Experiencing one of his photogravures in person leaves little doubt why. His work is ethereal and mysteriously beautiful. And his craftsmanship when it comes to photogravure is non-pareil.
 Man Ray was one of the few American artists involved in the international movements of Dada and Surrealism during the first half of the twentieth century. Published in 1931 and commissioned by a French electric company to promote the use of electricity, Électricité is a prime example of Ray’s experimental style and consists of 10 rayograms all related to uses of electricity and printed in photogravure.
Electricite la Ville, illuminated by Fernand Jacopozzi’s fanciful lighting design, explodes with an overlay of neon advertisements in Man Ray’s dynamic, multiple-exposure print. Fragments of words float through the photograph like bits of overheard conversations.
 In its first show of 2009, Kicken Berlin presented an overview of art photography from 1896 to 1916. The following text is an excerpt from the show’s press release written by Carolin Förster, Berlin based photo historian.
The turn of the century saw the establishment of an ‘international style’ in photography, laying claim to the medium’s recognition as a fine art. An additional goal of the Pictorialist movement was modernity; in contrast to the medium’s commercial and private uses, art photographers aspired to transform reality. By adapting the subjects of Symbolism, art nouveau’s awareness of form, and the craftsmanship of the Arts and Crafts Movement, they participated in the artistic avant-garde of fin de siècle Modernism and conveyed a very clear message: Photography is art.
Rather than being obvious or shocking, this modernity was hidden within individual aesthetic expression and in the art object’s sumptuous materiality. Numerous photography clubs, magazines, and museum exhibitions provided art photographers with a forum for critical recognition. The movement’s important centers included Vienna, Hamburg, and London, and it found its most important champion in the American Alfred Stieglitz, who published the magazine Camera Work.
Study, Heinrich Kuehn, photogravure 1911
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June 25 – 28 and August 7 – 10
Photogravure is perhaps the most beautiful of the photographic processes. It is also one of the most challenging. This summer Paul Taylor of Renaissance Press is sharing his expertise and offering two hands-on photogravure workshops.
Paul’s work with early photographic processes spans over thirty years. He is the founder of The Rhode Island School of Design Press and has been teaching photogravure at RISD since 1993. Renaissance Press has published or produced work by artists including Duane Michals, Robert Mapplethorpe, Joel Peter Witkin, Linda Connor, Robert Adams, Aaron Siskind, Roy DeCarava, Tom Baril, and many others. These prints are collected by museums internationally.
The workshops will take place at Renaissance Press’ atelier in Ashuelot, New Hampshire. Participants should expect intensive days in a relaxed environment. Renaissance Press is located on the bank of the Ashuelot and is a 25 minute drive to Keene New Hampshire or Brattleboro Vermont..
Each workshop is limited to 4 participants.
more details after the jump…
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I see the term ‘color photogravure’ here and there but never really know what it means. Is it a photogravure printed with a vibrant conté color ink? Or is it a plate inked simultaneously with multiple colors, like Aperture’s version of Steichen’s Moonrise, Mamaroneck? Or maybe it means plates run through the press multiple times each time using a separate color ink to achieve some type of Warhol screen-print effect?
Well Crown Point Press has teamed up with Susan Middleton (celebrated photographer of endangered species) to set the record straight. Together they have produced a series of true full-color photogravures.
The technique incorporated produces four-color positive separations from a color negative and etches each onto four individual copper plates. The plates are then inked with the appropriate color and printed in perfect registration resulting in a full-range color photogravure.
And while I have not seen one in person, I can’t help to believe that they would be anything less than beautiful. I hope to see one soon. If you are anywhere near the Crown Point Gallery in San Francisco, then it would be worth a visit to see for yourself.
The Crown Point Press gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. A brochure is available.
A PHOTOGRAPH PRINTED AS AN ETCHING
Learning the Language of the Realm
Featuring photogravures by Susan Middleton
February 27-April 7, 2009
Video of Susan Middleton talking about the project
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About three weeks ago I received in the mail Imagining Paradise, the new book highlighting the world-class collection of photographically illustrated books in George Eastman House’s Menschel Library. I immediately read the book cover to cover. It represents a concise, well-designed and beautifully printed book offering an overview of many of the publications that are represented on this site.
Then I recalled, when learning the wet-plate collodion process several years ago, I was allowed access to the GEH collection to view examples of vintage ambrotypes. I realized I could take a field trip to Rochester to see, in person, the books highlighted in Imagining Paradise.
So I assembled a list of titles that interested me (using their powerful Voyager catalog.) The list was ambitious to say the least, but it did not intimidate my gracious host, Rachel Stuhlman, the curator of rare books. She said she would see what she could do and agreed to meet me early the day I arrived so I could get a jump on the project. I was joined by friend and fellow photogravure enthusiast, David Spencer. His list doubled the number of titles I wanted to see.
When we arrived she was ready and waiting in the study room with carts of books. We wondered – could it really be this easy? We were beginning to understand what a powerful resource the George Eastman House is. Rachel was not just an accommodating hostess, but she was also a wealth of information when it comes to the photographically illustrated book. Having nurtured the library since 1982, she could answer questions about obscure variations in editions of ancient titles and could immediately put her hands on anything.
Believe it or not, our time was not spent only looking at books. We also had the good fortune to meet with and learn from the superb and talented staff of the GEH.
Mark Osterman, the process historian for the Advanced Residency Program for Photographic Conservation, gave us a crash course on a plethora of early photographic techniques including the use of a Camera Lucida and a Physionotrace.
Valentina Branchini, a research fellow in the Advanced Residency Program, provided fascinating insight into the work of Alvin Landon Coburn, teaching me more in a couple of hours than I have garnered from any book I have read on the subject. Together we examined Coburn photogravures, prints and negatives, comparing the subtle variations that may have motivated the directio
n of his work.
Sheila Foster, an independent researcher and co-editor of Imagining Paradise, (and a big fan of Camera Work photogravures) shared with us plans for an exciting new web resource on which the GEH is working and plans to unveil at the upcoming APAID.
Joe Struble, assistant archivist of the photo collection, pulled from the collection some rare examples of George Davison gravures as well as the large Coburn plates. Knowing we were in a hurry, he allowed us to take over the print viewing room, spreading out work that he would happily put away after we left.
Even Director of the ARP program, Grant Romer, made a point of stopping by to introduce himself and welcome us.
In short, we were very well taken care of at the GEH, so well in fact that we left with way more than what we originally expected to see, and plan on returning for we only scratched the surface of this great resource – a resource available free to anyone interested in almost any facet of history, processes, conservation or art of photography.
Thank you, GEH.
Please consider helping the George Eastman House continue to fulfill its responsibility as stewards of its consequential collection of photographs by visiting their website where you can find information about becoming a member or making a donation
To consider the history of photogravure is to also consider the evolution of fine art photography. Nowhere is this relationship more evident than the Pictorial period. The photographers that today standout as instrumental forces in this movement are also the names that rise to the surface when examining the history of the photogravure. And while TruthBeauty may not specifically address the close relationship between Pictorialism and photogravure, it certainly offers a platform from which to explore. This writer is particularly satisfied to see an Alvin Langdon Coburn photogravure, Wapping, used for the show’s announcement as well as and the cover of the accompanying critically acclaimed book.
Rochester, N.Y. — George Eastman House International Museum of Photography & Film focuses on the masterworks of Pictorialism with the exhibition TruthBeauty: Pictorialism and the Photograph as Art, 1845-1945, on view Feb. 7 through May 31, 2009. Featured will be more than 100 hauntingly beautiful photographs that illustrate Pictorialism’s desire to elevate photography — seen at one time as merely a mechanical tool of documentation — to an art form equal to painting and drawing.
Pictorialist photographs are among the most spectacular photographs in the history of the medium. TruthBeauty will reveal Pictorialism’s rich aesthetic, diverse approaches and technical innovations. Pictorialism was simultaneously a movement, a philosophy, an aesthetic, and a style. While its undisputed role in shaping our idea of the photograph cannot be overlooked, critical opinions on the movement’s artistic importance and historical significance have been deeply divided for at least the last 50 years.
Through photography clubs, exhibitions, and journals, Pictorialism spread from Britain to Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America. Adopting a soft-focus approach and utilizing dramatic lighting, unusual camera angles, and bold technical experimentation, the Pictorialists created highly atmospheric compositions that opened up a new world of visual expression in photography. Like Impressionism, which upset the traditions of painting and to which it is often compared, Pictorialism continues to be highly influential more 100 years after it began.
This exhibition traces Pictorialism from its early influences to its lasting impact on photography and art. TruthBeauty examines the generation of photographers who continued to strive to meet Pictorialist ideals long after the movement had concluded, particularly the transition from Pictorialism to Modernism — with the exhibition featuring some surprising early work by Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, on whom the influence of Pictorialism is not generally recognized.
TruthBeauty was curated by Dr. Alison Nordström, George Eastman House curator of photographs, who also edited a critically acclaimed book by the same title as the exhibition (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: Douglas & McIntyre, 2008, $60).
“It was the Pictorialists’ core assertion that photography could be a vehicle for personal expression — rather than merely a factual description of the world around us — that is now widely accepted despite the changes in style and philosophy that have characterized the medium through its subsequent phases,” wrote Nordström, along with Eastman House archivist David Soures Wooters, in the book’s essay “Crafting the Art of the Photograph.”
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