The Art of the Photogravure | Blog

Edward Steichen: The Early Years 1900-1920

2008-07-31T17:49:08Z

“Edward Steichen is an immortal among photographers. During the seven decades of his career, he advanced photography as an art form as well as a vital medium of visual communication. His richest, most profound photographs were made between 1900 and 1927. It is from this period that in 1969 he selected 12 masterpieces and, for his final photographic project, asked Aperture’s Michael Hoffman to attempt at that time what appeared to be impossible: publication of his prints as hand-pulled photogravures.”

Like his close colleague Alfred Stieglitz, Steichen understood the potential of photogravure and considered photogravure prints to be original works of art, in many cases the most faithful realization of the photographer’s intention. It is no wonder then that he chose photogravure for his last great work.

In the 70’s, Jon Goodman, already working to revive the photogravure process, teamed up with Richard Benson and Hoffman in an attempt to execute the exacting plates. The painstaking task of printing the plates was accomplished, under Jon’s supervision, at the atelier de Taille Douce, Saint-Prex, Switzerland. Twelve years later, the portfolio was finished. Of the twelve plates, three were made from Steichen’s original negatives – Torso, Isadora Duncan and Three Pears.

It baffles this writer why these portfolios have been sitting in Aperture’s inventory all this time. Is it possible that people just don’t realize that they are still available?… Well, they may not be for long. Only three complete portfolios remain. My sentiments…. It’s about time. It’s about time that this great portfolio is sold out, finally acknowledging that it is indeed an amazing and important achievement and a milestone in the history of photogravure.

View Portfolio

Link to Aperture's catalog

What is Photo-Etching?

2008-07-18T03:02:01Z

From a recent email.... "I am studying photogravures and don't understand the difference between photogravure and photo-etching. Can you clarify this for me?"
Embarrassed not knowing the answer, I turned to Jon Goodman, who replied....

Photogravure is an intaglio printing process where a continuous tone image (photograph) is etched into a copper plate by means of a gelatin resist and an aquatint or screen substitute. The gelatin resist controls the etching in a manner that creates a true continuous tone rendering of the image being etched. It is a continuous tone ink printing process. There is no conversion of the “grayscale” into “half-tone” dots. “Photo-etching” as the word is commonly used is an intaglio process where line or tone is created through what is essentially a black or white “half-tone” process. The etching process either etches the plate or not, there is very little (no) variability in the tone due to the uniformity of the depth of etch. Gray tones are either created by converting them to “half-tone” or by etching the plate multiple times for varying amounts of time to create different depths in the plate.
The gelatin resist used in photogravure is essentially a “Carbon Print” that has been transferred onto a copper plate instead of a piece of paper. It is the act of the transfer that allows the gelatin to control the etching in a continuous manner. Since the exposed “face” of the gelatin is in contact with the copper plate the hot water development allows the gelatin to adhere to the copper in thickness that is in proportion to the amount of exposure received. If a gelatin (or other) was simply coated onto the copper and then exposed (as in photo-etching) and developed (no transfer) it would be virtually impossible to render a long continuous scale of tones.

Thanks Jon!

Is Beauty Old-Fashioned?

2008-06-10T04:39:55Z

Is Beauty Old-Fashioned?

When EXIT – Image and Culture asked for permission to reproduce an image from this site in their upcoming issue Pictorialism, I happily obliged. Only when I received a complimentary issue did I understand the significance of this publication. In addition to being beautifully designed and printed, the entire issue (175 pages) is devoted to Pictorialism and its ‘reheating’. In her introduction, editor Rosa Olivares points out that while the Pictorialism of the late 1800’s was the avant-garde of the time “shaking the very foundations of the visual arts establishment,” today many consider it anachronistic or old-fashioned. But recently “Ever more young artists are inclined to take up this type of photography, in spite of fashions … And it is not just a matter of the reconceptualisation of the tableau vivant … but also the recovery of a certain type of beauty still alive among us.”

The journal includes a dozen articles by photographers, historians and critics as well as beautiful examples of both traditional and contemporary pictorial photographs like those of Desiree Dolron, Jeff Bark and Anoek Steketee.

Read “Is Beauty Old-Fashioned?” by Rosa Olivares

Desiree Dolron, Xteriors IX (2001-2008)

]]> Beyond any theoretical or constructive consideration, when we think of pictorial photography we think of beauty. The fact that the picture is a faker construction than a Vuitton handbag sold in China does not affect us, nor do we stop to consider that the light is unnatural, the idea is usually based on a scene borrowed from pictorial tradition (and therefore Pictorialist), and still less that this practice is (though it may be more fitting to say was) an offence against the fundamental principles of the birth of photography. We like its beauty, those white women’s cadaverous languid, bodies, actually about to expire. We love those now virtually impossible landscapes. After all, we find it irresistible to get a glimpse of a world different from that in which we live, one that appears to be free of the problems we experience on this other side of reality, one in which everything is designed to seem pleasant to us. Quite the opposite of contemporary photography, which is so concerned with transmitting ideas, concepts, situations that inevitably lead us to question all sorts of issues and, of course, to take responsibility for them; so obsessed with non-beauty, with offering us the cruel, vulgar, ugly part of reality, perhaps even reality itself and without a doubt, part of ourselves. No, in pictorial photography none of this is so. Beauty, order, stillness takes precedence over any other quality. That is, falsehood triumphs. But, how do we associate falsehood and beauty? Maybe this is because every beautiful thing entails something irremediably false, especially these days when beauty seems to be a laboratory formula. Appearance, as we have always known, does not cease to be an individualised staging for a global dramatisation of existence. In any case, let us be happy and oblivious for a little while and delight in essentially beautiful pictures. Not to worry, there are no side effects. It seems as though beauty has been expelled from the world of contemporary art. Today, to say of a work of art that it is lovely, beautiful or pretty, is to denigrate it rather than to commend it. And if everything beautiful seems anachronistic, that is: of another era, old-fashioned, then, is beauty old-fashioned? What the idea of beauty actually contains has changed a lot in a short time, perhaps too quickly, much more than our own tastes, to be sure, for otherwise it would be hard to understand how a trend such as photographic Pictorialism could have survived beyond 1920, when this movement fell into decline and virtually disappeared. However, it must be remembered here, though the following essays explain in more detail, that pictorial photography came into being around 1880 and it was the authentic avant-garde of the time, shaking the very foundations of the visual arts establishment. The dream of those Victorian photographers was that photography would be accepted as a serious art form, on the same level as other existing practices. It is hard to see how its followers can now be slated as old-fashioned and working against photography’s autonomy. It is true that those who are bent on untimely pursuits of once avant-garde trends that are clearly in decline can become simple pastiches, pathetic imitations of themselves, and this undoubtedly happened in the late 1970s, when the worst practitioners of Pictorialism proliferated. Nevertheless, we are currently witnessing a pictorial reheating. Ever more young artists are inclined to take up this type of photography, in spite of fashions and quite possibly bolstered by a market that knows how to place value on and exploit those products that maintain traditional elements, and are thus more easily accepted by the well-off bourgeoisie. And it is not just a matter of the reconceptualisation of the tableau vivant by artists ranging from Jeff Wall to thousands of young photographers who insist on constructing unlikely settings, but also the recovery of a certain type of beauty still alive among us. It is a matter of a reconsideration of the body, a still complacent vision of landscape, a sophistication of interiors in an effort to imbue the commonplace with sensuality and pleasure, to make the strange attractive and mysterious. A reconstruction of some pictures made to be enjoyed, to be contemplated with self-absorption, merely for the sake of pleasure-seeking.One theme for reflection that we can develop when contemplating these Pictorialist pictures is the hybridisation that, since the emergence of photography, has been taking place in the world of visual arts: painting influences photography, design and fashion influence photography, painting and photography influence film, film influences photography, photography influences painting, film influences painting,… and then video was born. The origin of the idea that everything works as a source, as a seed, as a starting point can be seen clearly in Pictorialism. This is something that has been essential for the current evolution of art and that nevertheless disqualifies many of those who practice it, as was the particular case of Pictorialism.It goes without saying, and in the following pictures it is plain to see, that the 21st century Pictorialists are not the same as those of the 19th century. They are certainly much more daring, more exuberant and also more mysterious, for their frames of reference are much more varied. They are influenced by cinema that did not exist then, as well as much more elaborate literature, and they have exceedingly more refined technical expertise and, possibly, a more versed taste. Also a much more sharpened perverseness. They are artists who have begun their careers at a time when photography is undoubtedly another art form, one free of complexes. They have found a real market that could not even be dreamt of before. In this situation they decide to look backwards or, at least, to look another way. And it is the body that most attracts that gaze, the body within certain canons of beauty and self-complacence that are surprising in any other contemporary art media; they are steeped in the contemplation of the apparently insignificant, in impossible scenes, in strange settings. They let time pass before their eyes while they contemplate the river flowing before them.In conclusion, they do not seem to be living at the same time or in the same place as the photographers that usually fill these and other pages of publications on contemporary art. And then we realise that a female nude, clearly resembling those of the late Renaissance, looks obscene to us, in a society in which sex and nudity is everywhere, this women, who in her solitude lies down naked, leaves us with a bizarre sensation of discomfort. And it is not the exquisite, languid nude lacking in morbid fascination, but the real nude, the real body. That way of looking at intimacy, solitude, beauty, the construction of spaces for the slowest pleasure, gives rise to this photography that can lose track of time because it is developed outside it in an everlastingly absolute and irreversible way. The difference between the historical Pictorialists and the modern-day Pictorialists lies in the fact that the former were considered avant-garde, innovative and ground-breaking, whereas the latter are somewhat anachronistic aestheticists exploring territories that do not interest the more radical creators. It may be that what they have in common is that both those of yesterday and today are viewed as unworthy by the critics and the established models, by the school that every age defines as model.Translated by Dena Ellen Cowan

MIA Naturalistic Photography Exhibit

2008-05-10T17:16:17Z

“Not long ago I had your portfolio of gravures in my hand and also your book Naturalistic Photography. Both took me back many years–and both seem still alive.”

- Alfred Stieglitz 1933

Post, W.B., Intervale, Winter, 1901

Peter Henry Emerson and
American Naturalistic Photography
May 3—September 7, 2008

Minneapolis, April 22, 2008—America’s first movement of creative photography and its revolutionary founder, Peter Henry Emerson, are the subjects of a new exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA.) Nearly one hundred naturalistic photographs by Emerson and twenty other photographers will be on view May 3 through September 7, 2008. Drawn largely from the MIA’s permanent collection, these sensitively portrayed images span the movement’s history from the 1890s to the 1930s. Other images on display include those by Edward Curtis, Alfred Stieglitz, Henry Troth, and Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr.

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Peter Henry Emerson (British, born Cuba, 1856–1936) spent his early years on his family’s sugar plantation before moving to England as a teenager. A physician and a scientist, he took up photography at age 26. He formulated naturalistic photography in 1889 when he published his groundbreaking book, Naturalistic Photography for the Students of the Art. In it, Emerson defined a new style of camera work and made a case for photography as a fine art. He advocated simple compositions, differential focusing, and nature as subject and inspiration. He advised creatively inclined photographers to make images that read as one harmonious whole by choosing a single point of interest and downplaying all surrounding detail. By sharply rendering only the primary subject of an image and making everything else ease into moderate softness, he introduced an approach he believed mimicked normal human vision.

Following Emerson’s lead, other naturalist photographers in the United States took nature as their muse and consequently spawned a movement of naturalistic photography in this country. Like Emerson, these photographers spent considerable time communing with nature and carefully studying its elements. They photographed the land in all its forms and seasons, as well as the devoted individuals who farmed and fed it. Many lived in or near rural areas, giving them easy access to unbridled nature. American naturalists were content to work close to home, essaying the everyday and ordinary.

Nature presented a wide variety of subjects for these photographers. Henry Troth, for instance, regularly photographed the fields in rural Pennsylvania, while William B. Post and Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr., became known for their winter landscapes and studies of snow. Flowers and gardens were fertile material for Edwin Hale Lincoln, while Theodore Eitel concentrated on the trees of Kentucky. Beyond pure landscapes, the naturalists photographed the sky, farm life, ocean shorelines, and recreational activities such as boating and bicycling.

A number of American naturalistic photographers revealed strong ethnographic interests. Mirroring Emerson’s examination of traditional coastal inhabitants of England, several photographers turned their attention to the indigenous American and immigrant cultures. Most notable among them were Doris Ulmann and Edward S. Curtis. Ulmann initially photographed New England religious groups, such as the Mennonites and Shakers, but soon directed her attention to African Americans of the Appalachian Mountains and elsewhere in the South. Curtis spent his career documenting Native American tribes, not only in pictures but also in the written word. His multi-volume set The North American Indian, published between 1903 and 1930, includes more than two thousand photographs, and remains the most exhaustive study of the subject.

Alfred Stieglitz also admired Emerson’s sensitive images and absorbed his revolutionary theories. Even as he moved on to making and promoting Modernist work, he conceded the naturalistic movement still had currency in the 1930s. In 1933, he and Emerson corresponded for the last time, only three years before the latter’s death. Stieglitz concluded his letter by writing, “Not long ago I had your portfolio of gravures in my hand and also your book Naturalistic Photography. Both took me back many years–and both seem still alive.”

Exhibition Catalogue
Published in conjunction with the exhibition, Peter Henry Emerson and American Naturalistic Photography is a beautifully illustrated catalog and the first major examination of American naturalistic photography. Written by Christian Peterson, Acting Curator of Photographs at the MIA, the book investigates a distinct and defining movement in the history of photography and includes early work by such leading pictorialists as Alfred Stieglitz and Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. The book rediscovers some significant photographers and puts the imagery of Edward S. Curtis and Doris Ulmann into a new context. The catalogue is available for purchase in the MIA’s Museum Shop.

About the Minneapolis Institute of Arts
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA), home to one of the finest encyclopedic art collections in the country, houses more than 80,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history. Highlights of the permanent collection include European masterworks by Rembrandt, Poussin, and van Gogh; modern and contemporary painting and sculpture by Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, Stella, and Close; as well as internationally significant collections of prints and drawings, decorative arts, Modernist design, photographs, prints and drawings, and Asian, African, and Native American art. General admission is always free. Some special exhibitions have a nominal admission fee. Museum hours: Sunday, 11 A.M.–5 P.M.; Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, 10 A.M.–5 P.M.; Thursday, 10 A.M.–9 P.M.; Monday closed. For more information, call (612) 870-3131 or visit www.artsmia.org.

Etchings of Light: Talbot and Photogravure

2008-04-28T04:52:03Z

He has made Apollo his own engraver.

- Brighton Gazette, 1858

A ‘photogenic drawing’ erroneously attributed to Henry Fox Talbot was recently pulled from a high-profile Sotheby’s auction because the “worlds leading Talbot expert” pronounced that the image may not be Fox Talbot’s and in fact might predate any photograph known to exist. (“An Image is a Mystery for Photo Detectives”, New York Times 4/17/08 p. B1.)

The expert quoted in the article is Dr. Larry Schaaf, an independent photographic historian based in Baltimore, Maryland. Schaaf is the founder and Director of The Correspondence of William Henry Fox Talbot archives http://foxtalbot.dmu.ac.uk and was elected the 2005 Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University. Schaaf’s books include Out of the Shadows: Herschel, Talbot & the Invention of Photography (Yale University Press); The Photographic Art of William Henry Fox Talbot (Princeton University Press); and In Focus: William Henry Fox Talbot Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum.

According to Dr. Schaaf, “It often surprises people that the inventor of photography on paper, William Henry Fox Talbot, was also the father of photogravure... Equally striking is the fact that Talbot actively worked on photogravure for the last twenty-five years of his life, a span of time more than double that which he devoted to photography itself.”

Photogravure.com is privileged to be able to include in its text section the essay by Dr. Schaaf, “Etchings of Light” written as the introduction to the exhibition catalog, Sun Pictures; Talbot and Photogravure that accompanied an exhibition of the same title at the gallery, Hans Kraus, Jr., in October of 2003. Included in this catalog is a selection of outstanding Fox Talbot photogravures and it alone is an invaluable resource for anyone serious about studying the history of photogravure.

Many thanks to Dr. Schaaf and Hans Kraus, Jr. for allowing the inclusion of this important essay on this site and for their continued support.

Download Essay

Auction Results…

2008-04-19T23:20:32Z

Photogravure made a strong showing in this years spring auction season. Here are some of the highlights:

Christes Sale No. 2110

Lot 2 Thomas Annan, The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow $10,000 USD
Lot 3 Alvin Langdon Coburn, London $13,750 USD
Lot 4 Alvin Langdon Coburn, Men of Mark $5,000
Lot 5 Alvin Langdon Coburn, London (Chesterton, 1914) $3,750 USD
Lot 7 Paul Strand, Camera Work 49/50 (presentation copy) $34,600 USD
Lot 38 Doris Ullman, Roll Jordan Roll $39,400 USD
Sotheby’s Sale No. N08424
Lot 154 Alfred Stieglitz, Spring Showers (large format) $49,000 USD
Lot 156 Alfred Stieglitz, The Steerage (large format, signed) $91,000 USD
Sotheby’s Sale No. N08425
Lot 10 306 Alfred Stieglitz, The Steerage (large format) $32,200 USD
Christies Sale No. 1968 (off season)
Lot 306 Alfred Stieglitz, The Steerage (small format) $10,000 USD

A Short History of Photography Collecting

2008-04-04T01:40:53Z

With APAID and the spring auctions fast approaching, it seems an appropriate time to post Penelope Dixon’s article, ‘A Short History of Photograph Collecting.’ Dixon is perhaps the most qualified appraiser of fine art photography practicing today. In this essay she lays out for beginning and experienced collectors a concise and thoughtful overview of the history and practice of collecting photographs.

Download Text

To learn more about Penelope Dixon and Associates you can visit their visit their web site

New Work Posted: Sun Artists

2008-02-25T04:35:52Z

We are fortunate to have recently added to the collection a complete set of “Sun Artists”, an excellent example of photogravure’s influence on the evolution of the art of photography.

From the introduction…” In producing ‘Sun Artists’ it is their endeavour to emphasize the artistic claims of photography by reproducing the best work in the best possible manner…The whole series, it is hoped will form a true, because comprehensive, representation of modern artistic photography. In this sense, the promoters confidently believe that ‘Sun Artists’ discovers virgin soil...The plates in the first number have been executed by the Typographic Etching Company to whom great credit is due for the delicacy and perfection of their reproduction... The day is dawning when Nature as rendered by photography will occupy a much larger share in the esteem of cultured men, when Truth as Truth will also be conceded its claim to beauty. The ripeness of Time my not have yet of come; should such prove the case, “Sun Artists” will help to prepare the way. In however small a degree, it is at once the ambition and the pride of the promoters of this serial to be associated with a movement which strives to gain for Photography a recognition until now denied her.

Sun Artists No. 1, Joseph Gale

Sun Artists No. 2, Henry Peach Robinson

Sun Artists No. 3, J.B.B. Wellington

Sun Artists No. 4, Lyddell Sawyer

Sun Artists No. 5, Julia Margaret Cameron

Sun Artists No. 6, B. Gay Wilkinson

Sun Artists No. 7, Mrs. F.W. H. Myers

Sun Artists No. 8, Frank Meadow Sutcliffe

Sun Artists (original series). Edited by W. Arthur Boord. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co. ..., 1889-1891

Photogravure Meets Pop?

2008-02-11T04:53:22Z

While the focus of this site is traditional, I think Pieter Myers' comments are noteworthy.....

Photogravure enjoys a reputation for excellence in crafting the photographic image. Perhaps because it is a relatively new among graphic media, photogravure has yet to exhibit the freedom of expression that has become the norm in much older graphic techniques. Complicating this evolution, photogravure is a chameleon, encompassing many manifestations of printmaking, and is therefore hard to classify. Since this confuses almost everyone in the art world, people tend to focus on what they know, i.e., beautiful prints of classic black & white images. As a result, publishers, collectors, and galleries tend to overlook much of the contemporary work being done, such as creative interpretation of the original image and, yes, color. So I would like to open up the dialogue and suggest that it might be time to update the definition of photogravure.
I recognize that definitions are not popular in today’s ecumenical art world. Yet the blurring of the boundaries between media diminishes the uniqueness and identity of any of them. Because of this, some exhibitions don’t know what to do with photogravure, and interestingly, the American Color Print Society will not accept photogravure no matter how obscured the original photographic image may be. Should we care about this? And how far away from “photographic” can a subject be before it is no longer a photogravure? Regardless of how you feel about historical purity, I submit that photogravure is uniquely suited to contemporary subject matter, social realism and (why not?) Pop Art. In my own work I prefer to stay within the traditionally held definition of hand pulled copper plate photogravure in order to keep the integrity of the medium intact. But I am not comfortable with photogravure as primarily a purely photographic medium. I like to balance the scale, and even tip it more to the graphic side by using a variety of darkroom and etching techniques. If the subject suggests color, I use color. Already I have lost the photogravure traditionalist. Perhaps “avant-garde photogravure” will remain a contradiction in terms. If this is the case, the medium may even be able to hold the line against the horrors of digital manipulation.
I hope I have stirred up some discussion with these thoughts, but it is not the photogravure police we should be worried about. The real battle is with all the mechanical reproductions sporting fancy names that masquerade as original prints.

Pieter S. Myers
www.psmyers.com

Visitors from Communication Arts

2008-02-03T22:47:50Z

Welcome. Thanks for taking the time to checkout photogravure.com. This struggling medium needs all the attention it can get. And while Toky has done a great job interpreting the spirit of photogravure for the web, its true essence, like fine letterpress printing, can only be fully appreciated in person. Photogravure pushes ink-on-paper to its limits.

So, head to a museum's print viewing room or your local library’s rare book room and see for yourself. Find some examples of Stieglitz’s Camera Work or Coburn’s London and then spread the word. Or if you are in the neighborhood, stop by the studio and I will personally give you a tour of the history of photography in photogravure.

Thanks again for your interest.

Sincerely Mark Katzman

Ferguson and Katzman

Top lot at Swann December auction is photogravure

2007-12-23T01:28:21Z

EXCELLENT RESULTS FOR PHOTGRAVURE AT SWANN GALLERIES’ AUCTION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC LITERATURE & PHOTOGRAPHS ON DECEMBER 13

“This was an exciting auction in which the synergy between Photographic Literature and classical photography was reconfirmed…” Daile Kaplan Photogravure highlights included several editions of Camera Work, among them Number 36, with 16 photogravures by Alfred Stieglitz, New York, 1911, which brought $28,800. Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Theaters, special edition, issued with a signed photogravure, New York, 2000 brought $4,800. And Roy De Carava’s Roy De Carava, with 12 dust-grain photogravures printed by Paul Taylor in 1991, was the auction’s top lot at $81,000.
Roy DeCarava’s (American, b. 1919) photographs have documented African American life in New York from a deeply personal and yet socially conscious perspective. DeCarava explained his feelings when taking the 1964 photograph of five men coming out of the church service: "The motivation at that moment was my political understanding of the treatment of black people and their response to injustice...I wasn't at the bombing, I wasn't in the church, but I knew what it was and I wanted to make a picture that dealt with it. The [five] men were coming out of the church with faces so serious and so intense, and the image was made."

Papa by Debbie Fleming Caffery

2007-12-05T04:03:07Z

Louisiana native Debbie Fleming Caffery makes photographs that are anchored at the intersection of earth and spirit. An early series documents the sugarcane harvest that was part of the fabric of her childhood. The haunting images of the cane workers in the fields, often made in the shadowy light of dawn, portray a vanishing culture familiar to those who have lived with it, but a world apart to most. Composed in lush black tones, the photographs suggest an atavistic relationship to earth and fire, light and darkness. In 1984, Caffery began Polly, a poignant and moving collective portrait of the late Polly Joseph, a solitary and proud African-American woman living in the sugarcane country of Louisiana. Shot in the dim light of Polly’s cabin, these masterfully printed photographs not only capture the extraordinary expressiveness of Caffery’s subject, but the expressive characteristics of the medium itself. It is clear in these portraits – collected in a book published by Twin Palms Publishers in 2004 – that Caffery seeks nothing less than the spirit. Whether working in the cane fields or among rural cultures of Mexico, her photographs collect visual mysteries that always hint at that undefined territory between this world and the next. Her newest project, Deseos Sobre Todo (Desire Overall), has won her the 2005 Guggenheim fellowship and focuses on prostitutes and their customers at a rural Mexican brothel. Since moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico, Caffery has worked on photographic projects for several area agencies, including Futures for Children, an Albuquerque-based Native American mentoring program aimed at keeping children in school.

-from the University of Kentucky Art Museum - May Lecture Series , Feb.2006

Paul Taylor, Howard Greenberg and Debbie Fleming Caffery worked tirelessly to produce this exquisite photogravure. For information contact Howard Greenberg Gallery.

Stieglitz Letter

2007-12-05T03:37:21Z

“Every number of Camera Work was published complete when issued. The way it happens that plates are missing is that frequently Camera Work came out of the bindery with plates to be inserted by me personally after binding. Some years ago many of the insets were either destroyed or mislaid. Hence the impossibility of completing many issues at present I know of no way of acquiring missing plates except in keeping one's eyes open for numbers of Camera Work as they may appear in the market. Absolutely complete sets of Camera Work are very, very rare & are priceless. No I have no reproductions either, there are none. The Plates in Camera Work for the major part are photogravures made directly from original negatives & were made under my direction as were the prints. -So from a certain point of view many of the Plates might be looked upon as a species of originals".

From a letter written by Stieglitz to Grace E. Titus, December 18,1933 (ebay item 290030212499)

Craftsmanship and Technology

2007-11-12T05:14:23Z

New technology is presenting opportunities for ateliers to prepare plates more efficiently, safely and cost effectively. Photopolymer technology offers an alternate to copper plate etching. In order to limit the scope of this site, I have chosen not to include ateliers practicing the modern photopolymer method. However I recently met Chris Pulos, a long time practitioner of photogravure. Chris has practiced both traditional and photopolymer methods. He sent me an example of photopolymer and I must admit it was quite beautiful. His comments…

"I have been working in photogravure since the early 1970's when I viewed the first unveiling of the Edward Curtis' Prints in Boston, Mass. I had the privilege of reprinting the Edward Curtis plates in Santa Fe, NM in 2005. Holding the original early 20th Century copper plates was daunting. The plates had an ageless connection to not only a race of people and an American visionary but to a process that was considered the finest form of printing a photographic image. The early masters all had their images immortalized in this process. The experience led me to set up my own atelier printing limited edition portfolios.

In 2006 I was introduced to Photopolymer Gravure, the 21st Century evolvement of Photogravure. The process utilized contemporary chemistry and physics without the deleterious affects of acids and caustic chemistry; thus environmentally safe. Imagery and positive preparation are done digitally, ground asphaltum is replaced with stochastic screens and acid bath bite becomes a water wash out. Printing with an etching press and intaglio inks is the same as copper. The final print maintains the lushness and depth of tone of copper gravure while creating crisper detail and cleaner imagery. The evolution of photogravure in the contemporary polymer process facilitates the process for the artist wishing to create timeless imagery."

Jon Goodman believes that the digitalization of photography could be the demise of photogravure if an adequate and affordable digital alternative to preparing film positives from digital files is not incorporated.

With regard to the aquatint, traditionally a screen is created by ‘dusting’ the plate with rosin. New ‘prefab’ screens incorporating stochastic technology however are available today further streamlining the process. At Lothar Osterberg’s studio in Brooklyn recently, I was able to compare a traditional dust-grain print with a stochastic screen print. Under a loupe, the traditional method is superior. Without magnification, however, the differences were much more subtle.

It’s hopeful to believe that these advancements will ensure a healthy future for the photogravure process rather than chip away at the organic qualities that bring it to life.

Please feel free to comment on this topic…..

Julia Margaret Cameron - 'Sadness'

2007-10-21T18:21:23Z

In 1864 Julia Margaret Cameron, at the age of 48, took up photography. Her motivation was, “to arrest all beauty that came before me.” One of her first successes was an image created for her close friend, the painter George Fredrick Watts. The photograph, which she titled, “Sadness,” was a study of the Shakespearean actress, Ellen Terry.

Terry came from a theatrical family and had her stage debut at age nine. In 1862 she was introduced to Watts when she posed for one of his paintings. Conceding to the pressure of others, Terry and Watts were married in February 1864, when she was just sixteen. Within a year, the couple had separated, and they were formally divorced in 1877.

It is likely that this portrait was made on their honeymoon. And while Terry may have been striking a pose for Cameron, the picture’s title and Terry’s expression suggests that Cameron was probing Terry’s conflicted and anxious soul. Later, in her autobiography, Terry recalls how difficult her relationship with Watts actually was.*

Why did Stieglitz choose to reproduce Cameron’s, “Sadness” as a photogravure in Camera Work (entitled Ellen Terry, at the Age of Sixteen) ? Stieglitz believed that Cameron was one of fine art photography’s earliest practitioners and “Sadness” a classic example of her intentions.

* from In Focus: Julia Margaret Cameron. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles