In this age of the instantaneous distribution of digital images, many photographers have faced a fundamental question, at once pragmatic and philosophical: what exactly is a photograph these days?
Photogravure is not a photographic process; it is a printmaking process. But the images generally originate photographically.
In this comparison, you can see what a scanned version of one of my photogravure prints looks like alongside a digital version.
Color choices have been made: while the digital is “greyscale” (or neutral, if you are viewing it on a color-calibrated display), the print is significantly warmer.
The “grain” in the gravure’s sky is due, in part, to the resolution of the photo (after all, it is digital-to-analog-to-digital to see it on a website). But also due to the graininess of the gravure plate. The digital appears to have somewhat higher resolution.
But all of these are technical considerations. The thing I find so fascinating about photogravure is the tone, or mood, of the resultant images.
In part, there is a feeling of an “old photo,” that sort of non-digital softness that exists in… well… actual photographs. Ironic, isn’t it?
I’ve printed this image as large as 24 x 36 (digital photo print) and as small as a mere 3-1/2 x 5. I can say that I will sincerely love this image in all its forms. But the small, intimate, isolated photogravure version is the one I love the most.
This image is a part of the fine press book, Isolation.
