A Treatise on Photogravure

The Internet is a wonderful place. Really.

I am carrying around on my vacation a 1974 reprint by the Visual Studies Workshop of Herbert Denison's A Treatise on Photogravure (in Intaglio by the Talbot-Klič Process). It is available used at a price of $275 (for the reprint) at Amazon.com today, which may put it out of many people's reach.

For whatever reason, this book is one of many scanned by Microsoft as part of an effort to put out-of-copyright works on the web for wider access. A full color PDF version of this black and white treatise is available, and other formats are available also, in a scan from the University of Toronto. It was the 32nd hit on Google.com that yielded a launch page on Archive.org to find a scanned version of the text. I keep forgetting to search there first - they have several other early texts on photography.

A brief biography of Jon Goodman mentions that he carried this slender 140 page reprint around with him during his early studies of photogravure in Europe (though it incorrectly lists the first publication date as 1865 - some thirteen years before Klič perfected the method). 

The book presents a complete description of the steps of process in the table of contents:

1. Introductory
2. The Negative
3. The Transparency
4. The Gelatine Resist
5. The Copper Plate
6. The Ground
7. Mounting and Developing the Resist
8. The Mordant
9. Etching the Image
10. Photogravure in Line
11. Printing from the Plate
12. Afterwork on the Plate
13. Steel-facing the Plate
14. Historical Notes

The text assumes hands on knowledge of traditional silver photography and darkroom work, and perhaps a working knowledge of carbon printing methods. I do find it amusing that these older texts have sections titled Historical Notes. The facsimile edition reprints the 1895 version - some 55 years after the invention of photography. Also, as others have noted, steel-facing is a misnomer, the copper plates once etched are iron-coated electrolytically. There are some modern references I'll dig up to non-toxic (less toxic) approaches to copper plate photogravure - do poke around a bit to find those.

So if you were looking for something to read as you entered the New Year, this is my recommendation.

Wash out

Let's talk about washing out the Toyobo KM73 photopolymer plate.

On Jon Lybrook's recommendation I eventually purchased the Boxcar Press brush. Dianne Longley talks about any flat soft bristle brush being usable for washout. After constructing my own using taped together bristle paint brushes from Home Depot, I decided to buy the Boxcar brush. At 4" x 8", it fits neatly in the palm of my hand. The soft bristles present a flat broad washout surface to the plate. A plate washer I saw at Kala Institute during a workshop had a large flat brush with bristles about 1" long if I recall correctly.

As Jon and others have suggested, I line the bottom of a plastic tray with a 60 mil magnetic sheet to hold the steel-backed KM73 plate still during washout. I fill the tray with tap water to just near the top of the Boxcar brush as it rests against the bottom. The water is about 70 deg. F. I do not at this time worry about the temperature of the water greatly. I keep my darkroom at about 70 deg. F also.

After first exposing the plate to the positive, and then to the aquatint screen (talcing and brushing the plate before each exposure), I place the plate into the water and allow it to settle centered on the magnetic sheet.

I fire off a two minute timer - my washout for a plate about 8" x 10" is two minutes. Following Longley's suggested wash out procedure in her book Printmaking with Photopolymer Plates, I brush the plate in a circular motion, moving from one side of the plate to the other. I think I am making 3" to 4" elliptical motions with my hand during washout. I make sure to extend the brushing about two inches beyond the plate edge when starting to ensure I wash the entire plate.

I do not put much pressure on the brush. I start by letting the weight of the brush apply the pressure, and add a bit more with my hand. The brush moves across the plate easily - though you will quickly feel friction from the "etched" areas of the plate and the bristles find a hold in the depressions that will later hold the ink. After doing this several times I think that fine bristles are probably important for washing out plates made with a fine aquatint screen.

When I reach the other edge, again ensuring I brush two inches past the plate edge, if necessary I shift the brush down, and continue brushing with a circular motion, overlapping the strokes to the other end of the plate. 

If the plate is long you may repeat this motion, reversing at the edge of the plate one more time.

Jon's site mentioned keeping a stroke count to ensure a uniform wash out. In trading e-mails with him he mentioned he is a bit more relaxed about the stroke count. That said, here is a conundrum. You really want to uniformly process the plates each and every time to get consistent results. If you use different size plates (for different size prints) this becomes interesting. I have been using 8.5" x 10" plates (cut down from larger originals) during my calibration and testing. I'm not sure what I will do when I tackle larger plates. This might be the basis for the warning on the Boxcar site to only use the brush for plates up to 9" x 12".

When I reach the end of the plate I rotate the brush 90 degrees and begin brushing along the other axis of the plate. I vary the orientation of the brush to ensure lightly scrubbing the plate in a fairly random variation. Truth be told, I then rotate the brush 45 degrees and attack the plate (gently) on a diagonal axis.

And then I repeat until the two minutes are up. Note I have read many recommendations for time to wash out. The time recommended is less for relief printing, more for fine halftone work. I do not pre-soak. And I use a soft brush with gentle pressure.

I lift the plate out of the water and, using a garden hose sprayer head set to a broad spray pattern (not a jet) on the end of a hose, I wash the plate down with a fair bit of water pressure. I make several passes over the plate with the sprayer.

I let the plate drip dry for a few seconds before laying it down on a sheet of blue shop paper towel for drying.

The polymer plate is delicate at this stage. The polymer is only partially hardened. I take care to not touch the surface of the plate with my bare hands, nor scratch it with fingernails, the hard handle of the brush, or knock it into anything as I move it around. There's no repairing it once scratched.

Paul Strand

I just finished watching the documentary Strand: Under the Dark Cloth. The commentary went "[Late in life] Paul Strand went to Ghana... where he used a handheld camera for the first time." Yeah, what looks to be Graflex RB single lens reflex. 

Cataracts waylaid him briefly in his old age but still he printed - trying to direct his wife Hazel in the darkroom (operations restored his vision and he never drove again, but immediately returned to the darkroom).

Paul Strand was a much younger contemporary of Alfred Stieglitz, and the young Strand at first emulated the pictorialists he saw at the 291 gallery. He later moved to formal abstractions in his images and helped define early American modernism in photography. There is an interesting write-up on the Metropolitan Museum site.

Strand looms large in the world of photogravure. Stieglitz's seminal magazine Camera Work reproduced several of Strand's images in photogravure, the final issue being devoted almost entirely to Strand's work. The quality of the photogravures in Camera Work is said to be outstanding.

In 1940, Paul Strand issued a portfolio of twenty photogravures entitled Photographs of Mexico in an edition of 250. In 1967, Strand reissued the work from the original steel faced copper plates as The Mexican Portfolio in an edition of 1,000. Published by Da Capo Press, with the photogravures printed by the Andersen Lamb Company, of Brooklyn, on Rives BFK paper. Beth Moon observed when we sat down to view them with Mark Nelson and his friend Richard that the photogravures seemed to be varnished. Mark later found a reference to a letter by Strand confirming this. The above note indicates the varnish used in the 1940 edition has in many cases since darkened. The varnish in the 1967 portfolio in my possession seems quite clear. Aperture has available six of the images in an edition of 350 printed by Jon Goodman, from the original plates.

I picked up the 1967 portfolio (said by Strand in the preface to exceed the quality of the 1940 edition - but perhaps that is marketing) to have an example of outstanding photogravure work to set a goal, that is probably unachievable by me in my lifetime, of quality for the process. 

Various searches on Google yield interesting articles about Strand and photogravures. Anne Hammond's article on Photographic Art and Gravure and Letterpress: A Comparative Study of Paul Strand and Ansel Adams being worthy of a read. A reprint of an article about Jon Goodman by Andrew Wilkes that appeared in Aperture #133 is also worth reading.

I first saw a reference citing The Mexican Portfolio as an outstanding example in photogravure in the excellent text Copper Plate Photogravure: Demystifying the Process.  Amazon.com indicates I purchased that text on July 5, 2007. I wonder what led me to do that?

Printing the Crown Point Press Way

I've come down with something and am mostly staying warm and catching up on reading.

Jon Lybrook mentioned in passing that Crown Point Press was having a sale, and that he really loved their books. I have to say, if it wasn't for Jon's whole-hearted recommendation I would, as a rule, pass up books whose titles start with Magical Secrets About... I went to the web site and on his recommendation bought the three book set. In for a penny, in for a pound. Had I not bought the books, I would have been the poorer for it.

In my search for texts on polymer photogravure I have cast far and wide. There are a few texts on copper plate photogravure of note which I may speak of in the future. But I noticed in my searches that there were some texts for etching that were very relevant in describing technique that could be applied to photogravure.

Magical Secrets about Line Etching and Engraving: The Step-by-Step Art of Incised Lines, by Catherine Brooks is perhaps the most relevant of the three to photogravure. As of today it is on sale from their web site for $46.80 - and it's a steal for that price. The hidden gem inside, that immediately distracted me from Brooks's excellent text up front, is the appendix by Kathan Brown describing the Crown Point Press Way of Printing. Brown, the founder of Crown Point Press in 1962, expounds the view that the artist expresses themselves in the plate, while the printer is responsible for printing the plate consistently. This philosophy is well-matched to photogravure where the making of the plate is the fundamental expression of the image.

That said, I have repeatedly read that the inking of the plate itself is a craft, and it is here where Brown's appendix really gets going. Brown crisply and practically describes how to do that in a repeatable, straightforward fashion.

But that's not all folks, if you order today - oh, sorry, was getting carried away.

Tucked into the front cover of the book is a DVD that includes a 46 minute video of Brown demonstrating the techniques described in the appendix. What an eye opener it is. I have to say, I had no idea what it was supposed to look like when you wiped a plate. Brown demonstrates wiping a copper plate - I have no idea what the practical difference is when wiping a polymer plate. That said, I've paused making my (hopefully last) calibration plate as I review the video and re-read the appendix to try her inking and wiping method. The Magical Secrets web site has additional tips and information.

I bought barrier cream to keep the ink from under my nails (and promises softer hands to boot) and chalk dust for that final hand wipe as Brown suggests. I have a hot plate to warm my Toyobo KM73 plate when inking. I'm poised to try this method.

A hand wiped plate is considered to be the apogee of the printer's art, and involves leaving plate tone (tone in the highlights) that is removed during other wiping approaches. Lybrook I believe mentions that some of the pigments in inks should be considered toxic, so hand wiping the Crown Point Press way is not without its challenge.

In for a penny, in for a pound as I often say.

Annals of My Glass House

Julia Margaret Cameron is a hero of mine. She is an inspiration to follow one's passion no matter when in life you find it, to find supporters for one's endeavors, and to make progress in the pursuit of art through determination and hard work.

The Internet is a great resource for photography and opens up many early sources if you know to look for them. One interesting find is the brief unpublished record of Cameron's first ten years in photography - Annals of My Glass House. She is disarming in her practical approach to setting up a workspace for her new hobby:

I turned my coal-house into my dark room, and a glazed fowl-house I had given to my children became my glass house! The hens were liberated, I hope and believe not eaten. The profit of my boys upon new laid eggs was stopped, and all hands and hearts sympathized in my new labour, since the society of hens and chickens was soon changed for that of poets, prophets, painters and lovely maidens, who all in turn have immortalized the humble little farm erection.

The "glass house" is of course the natural light studio in which Cameron created many of her images. Her nonchalant brush off in her brief memoir of the rejection of her work by some conservative bodies then governing photography and instead focusing on her achievements and progress is refreshing. 

She seems to have two major subjects for her photography, constructed scenes such as Whisper of the Muse, and intensely psychological portraits. Her portrait of John Herschel is powerful, immediate, and piercing in its gaze on her mentor and friend. Her unconventional focus technique, her closeness - bordering on intrusiveness - to her subjects, and her unwavering vision make her portrait work speak more to our sensibilities today than to her near contemporaries who quickly forgot her.

Cameron emerged from obscurity in the 20th century, and her work can be seen in many collections.

The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes

While Arentz's work is phenomenal in its focus on Platinum and Palladium Printing, on the other end of the spectrum is a compendium covering many alternative processes. Perhaps the most comprehensive recent text is Christopher James's satisfying The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes.

Christopher James seems to be a throwback to the early, heady days of the practioner/technician/instructor. His book goes between the history, the art and the making of images by a wide variety of processes much as texts published by Scovill and others did at the turn of the 19th century. The history that James has to draw on is quite a bit longer however.

I must confess that I am a devourer of history and the people that make it. Maybe it was in James's first edition that I came across the reference to Anna Atkins in the chapter on Cyanotypes. Regardless, James does the material to right by acknowledging the priority of Atkins's lovely work British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions.

Profusely illustrated, with many examples of work in the respective processes (which the reproductions suggest but in no way replace the need for you to see original images printed in the process to fully appreciate their beauty). 

James keeps the tone light and the pace snappy. The format is clear (identifying alternate methods, and the material needed listed up front followed by detailed if humorous instructions):

16 large eggs

...

Whip the egg whites into stiff peaks (like the top of a Starbuck's latte). If you are being true to this idea of tradition, you will be using a bundle of quills to whip the albumen. If you don't have time to pluck a goose, use an electric blender wand.

This reader will never be able to try all these processes - but I'm certainly going to have fun attempting to do so.

Inks

I spent this evening completing calibration of my polymer photogravure process. Using Mark Nelson's PDN system I generated process correction curves for the Toyobo Printight KM 73 plates, Rives BFK paper and Charbonnel Universal Black.

I was trading e-mails with Jon Lybrook over the course of the evening discussing Takach's synchronized pressure system (I love it), aquatint screens, exposure times, Kreene, and my printing problems. I must say that uniformly I've found workers in alternative photography processes to be generous with their time and advice. Jon is no exception.

I created two digital negatives on my Epson 3800 printer with two different contrast curves to make polymer plates from and decided to let them dry overnight. I broke free and tackled a homework assignment for my Fine Art Photography class at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, where I am pursuing (albeit slowly) a BFA in photography. My teacher, Cissy Spindler, gave us an assignment to explore visual dynamics and personal expression using paints, pens pencils, pastels etc. to create a drawing/painting/collage - abstract or representational. I read the assignment and went "Huh. Didn't I go into photography specifically because I can't draw/paint/collage my way out of a paper bag?"

Necessity (and a good grade) being the mother of invention, I decided on an abstract that also was educational. Using a palette knife I artistically created color trails of the Charbonnel inks I bought to take for a spin in photogravure. As Jon observed, this was a reason to pursue this process - the wide variety of inks and fine art printing methods available to the practitioner.

From left to right the inks are:

1. Prussian Blue
2. Carmine Red
3. Vermillion Red
4. Sepia
5. Burnt Umber
6. Van Dyck Brown
7. Universal Black 55981
8. Gold

I was struck by several things. Foremost how "black" Prussian Blue is. Very dark, very moody. No happy sky, robin egg blue. I'm going to love this color. Second, the reds - very fluid, Carmine Red being more the red I expect to use. Sepia has promise - a strong black brown, the Burnt Umber and Van Dyck Brown seeming weak in comparison. The Gold has an entirely different, coarser texture. I anticipate a challenge not only in finding the images suited to print with Gold, but working with this ink in general.

Charbonnel has a great booklet on their inks that does not seem to be anywhere on-line (but I'll keep looking - oh, try these pages). Haunt your local brick and mortar art stores - that's where I picked up mine.

I converted my painting to black and white to remind me how much I often love colors.