Photogravure

Photogravure is a photomechanical process that etches an image onto a copper plate with acid to produce a relief that can be printed in a press. In the late 19^th century, it was embraced by artists, printers, and publishers in a variety of uses.

Photogravure has its roots, as many photographic processes do, in the work of Joseph-Nicéphore Niépce. Circa 1814, Niépce began experimenting with ways to make fixed images based on the principles of lithography. By treating a pewter plate with asphaltum, he created the first successful engraved portrait, of Cardinal d’Amboise.

Le Cardinal d'Ambroise,
Metal heliographic plate.
Retrieved from http://www.photogravure.com/history/chapter_niepce.html

Le Cardinal d'Ambroise.
1826, print from heliographic plate Retrieved from http://www.photogravure.com/history/chapter_niepce.html

[Dandelion Seeds],
William Henry Fox Talbot. c1858
Retrieved from ARTstor

William Henry Fox Talbot also had a hand in the development of the process. In his search for a way to make permanent images, he made significant improvements to Niépce’s initial work. The first of these was the discovery that gelatin treated with potassium bichromate hardens under light, which made it an excellent acid resist. The second was the use of a screen to distribute ink evenly over large etched areas of the plate. After experiments with several materials, he found that copal resin powder gave the most consistent results. He patented both these discoveries, in 1852 and 1858 respectively.

Photogravure’s major breakthough came at the hands of Karl Klîc, a Czech painter living in Vienna. Klîc used an aquatint grain to further improve Talbot’s screen method, and developed his own process for transferring a negative image to the copper plate as a positive using gelatin-coated carbon pigment paper. He called the process Talbot- Klîc Dust-Grain Gravure, and patented it in 1879. He initially sold licenses to printing firms for the use of his process, but by 1886 the process had been published in full and made available to the public. By the late 1880s, Klîc’s process was widely used to illustrate books, especially high-quality or fine art publications.

Washing the copper plate.
Retrieved from http://www.photogravure.com/process/process.html

The Talbot- Klîc Dust-Grain Gravure process involves coating a copper plate with acid resist, then heating the plate so the resist adheres to it. A positive transparency of the image is contact printed onto paper that has been coated in gelatin, then soaked in potassium bichromate. The gelatin coating hardens where it has been exposed to light. The paper is then affixed to the copper plate. The plate is soaked in water, which dissolves the paper and the unhardened gelatin. The plate is then soaked in a succession of ferric chloride etching solutions, each slightly more dilute than the last. Areas of thin gelatin get etched the most, creating deeper holes in the copper which transfer more ink to the paper when printing. The plate is then thoroughly washed, and printed onto dampened paper with thick ink that sinks into the cells the acid has etched. The result is a soft image with a wide tonal range.

The Street, Alfred Stieglitz, 1896
Retrieved from ARTstor

The process of photogravure was adopted by Alfred Stieglitz in the late 1800s, and he used the process exclusively in his position as editor of The American Amateur Photographer and Camera Notes. Following his departure from those publications, he began his own, Camera Work, in 1903. Stieglitz felt that photogravure was the only way to "interpret fully the spirit and quality of the original print,” and often involved the artists and photographers themselves in the printing process for Camera Work. Camera Work is considered a major contribution in the effort to have photography recognized as fine art.

Lone Tree, North Canyon, Jon Goodman, 1991
Retrieved from ARTstor

Photogravure was largely out of use by the 1940s, but experienced a renaissance in the early 70s with the work of Jon Goodman, who since then has been making photogravure prints of historic and contemporary images. Many fine art photographers and printmakers still use photogravure, and 21^st: The Journal of Contemporary Photography includes several photogravures in every volume.

Contemporary photogravure printing
Retrieved from http://jgoodgravure.com/Curriculum%20page%20b.html

 References

Goodman, Jon. (n.d.). Jon Goodman Photogravure. Retrieved from http://www.jgoodgravure.com/.

Katzman, Mark. (n.d.). Art of the Photogravure. Retrieved from http://www.photogravure.com/.

Ritzenthaler, Vogt-O'Connor, Zinkham, Carnell, & Peterson (2006). Photographs: Archival Care and Management (4th ed.). Chicago, IL: Society of American Archivists. 

Wikipedia, Alfred Stieglitz entry. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Stieglitz.

Wikipedia, Photogravure entry, Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photogravure.