A small gallery of original photogravure prints. Each is hand-inked and pressed into Fabriano Rosaspina paper, signed and editioned to ten. No two impressions are quite alike.
All prints are signed, numbered and editioned to ten. Available unframed or float-mounted in a box frame.
A series of print collections. see all collections →
A series of seven photogravure prints celebrating plants in their post bloom phase
view → Architectural
A cold February day at Rievaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire.
view → Experimental
These prints are the result of experimenting with different techniques for adding colour to the image. Each print is unique and unrepeatable.
View →The polymer photogravure process is a photo-mechanical printing process that turns a photographic image into a crafted object. It combines modern digital imaging techniques with traditional intaglio printing processes.
In fact photogravure is one of the earliest photographic processes - developed in the 19th century by the pioneers of photography. Traditionally it was done using copper plates that were etched using acid from which the plate was variably protected using a light sensitive resist material. For some the traditional technique is the only 'true' photogravure process. However it is technically challenging, uses some quite unpleasant chemicals and the plates it produces have a limited lifespan due to the soft compressible nature of copper.
Today we have an alternative solution which preserves many of the creative opportunities afforded by the traditional technique but dispenses with the chemicals and results in a printing plate with excellent tonal range that delivers consistent prints time and again - polymer photogravure - which uses a steel plate coated with a UV light sensitive polymer which once exposed to the image is then etched simply by washing in water.
The result is a print with genuine depth. Ink sits in the paper rather than on it, and the plate leaves an embossed impression you can feel with a fingertip.
The photograph is output as a film positive at full tonal range.
UV light hardens a photopolymer plate; unhardened areas wash away in water.
Ink is worked into the plate by hand, then carefully wiped back.
Damp Rosapina paper meets the plate under the press — one impression at a time.
I make photogravure prints from my own photographs, working in a home print room in Wiltshire. The images tend toward the still and weathered — stone, water, old wood, the texture of places that have been left alone for a long time.
Each print is hand-pulled in a small edition. If you'd like to commission a print from one of your own images, or ask about a piece, I'd be glad to hear from you.
For commissions, framing options, or anything else — drop me a line.
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