Art & Art History ETDs

Publication Date

5-15-1969

Abstract

Photogravure, a unique synthesis of intaglio and photography, is a manual method of printing photographic images in ink from etched copper plates. A print made by this method is a hand-crafted work of art, equal or superior to a silver-gelatin print. Photogravure offers the advantage of permanence through its use of fine ink and pure rag paper. This combination, coupled with the impression into the paper by an intaglio plate, gives the gravure image a richness and subtle relief not possible in the less permanent, flat-surfaced photographic print. In Part I the writer has outlined the history of photogravure--directly related to the development of photograph; itself--beginning with the heliographic experiments of Nicéphore Niépce in the 1820’s. W. H. Fox Talbot developed the photogravure process in 1852. His method employed a gelatin resist and aquatint grain on copper plates etched with ferric chloride. Further improvements were made by Joseph W. Swan in 1864 and Karel Klič in 1879. The latter's work made possible rotogravure, the mechanical counterpart to photogravure used commercially today. Very few photographers of note have used photogravure to reproduce their images. The method was thought of as a passive reproductive process until the 1890's. From that decade until the end of World War I, its creative potential was increasingly recognized by photographers such as Alvin Langdon Coburn, Clarence White, and Craig Annan. They are the only major photographers who have made and printed their own plates. Others, including Alfred Stieglitz and Paul Strand, closely supervised the making and printing of their plates. In addition Stieglitz used photogravure extensively in his magazine, Camera Work, between 1903 and 1917, clearly demonstrating its artistic merit as a means of reproducing photographs. Strand's Mexico portfolio (1940; 2nd ed., 1967) is the only major work produced in photogravure since World War I. Whereas Stieglitz generally used the medium as a means of reproduction, Strand, in his portfolio, demonstrates the potential of photogravure as a direct printing method in which the plates are made from the original negatives. Photogravure declined in popularity and use after World War I because of increasing use of more economical commercial methods of reproduction and because photographers placed new emphasis on simpler, unmanipulated techniques in their work. This historical and practical investigation of photogravure demonstrates that the basic technical foundations can be earned without benefit of formal instruction and, if necessary, without extensive facilities. The writer has provided in Part II a description for making and printing the plates, including appendices listing materials, formulae, and possible defects at several sages of the process. It is hoped that other contemporary photographers will be stimulated to investigate this little-used, but richly rewarding medium of creative expression and reproduction.

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Arts

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

UNM Department of Art and Art History

First Committee Member (Chair)

Van Deren Coke

Second Committee Member

Robert M. Ellis

Third Committee Member

Douglas Roland George

Fourth Committee Member

Garo Zareh Antreasian

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