Anyone familiar with the drive down California’s Highway 1 from Santa Cruz to Monterey knows the halfway point on the large Monterey Bay is Moss Landing.
A small fishing harbor, in the shadow of a large power plant, this is a setting for great fresh seafood and many picturesque scenes.
One of my favorites is the juxtaposition of the complicated fishing and pleasure boats with the peaceful water and sky.
The overlap of my photographic and printmaking interests found a new outlet in a process known as photogravure.
As old as photography itself, photogravure is an intaglio printing process that is an exercise in compromise and control.
The original goal of photogravure printing was to create images that are more easily reproduced (say, for a book) than those from a conventional wet darkroom, yet retain more clarity and control than, say, a halftone process.
I find the modern version of this old process recreates the feeling of older photographs, even with contemporary subjects such as this.
Through a series of steps involving dozens of variables, I transform a digital photograph, such as the original below left, into a continuous-tone black-and-white image on a transparent film, which is then used in a photographic process to create the plate.
Yes, a photograph of a photograph, just like in the days before computers!
In modern photogravure, a light-sensitive, water-soluble polymer plate is used instead of the traditional copper plate, which requires an acid etch. Environmentally better, but of course not without some other compromises. But the intaglio process of hand-inking and wiping the plate still leaves that soft residual plate tone indicative of hand printing.
I find photogravure both challenging and rewarding, and will continue to explore this medium and process further in the future. There are so many variables, so many minor adjustments that can be made in processing (just like traditional wet darkroom photography) and printing (just like other intaglio printing, where each plate is hand inked and wiped).
