Photogravure?

[alec4444]

Question 2 : will a 400lb printing press fall through my apartment floor and onto my downstair neighbor's head? I'm concernd about the press being damaged.

Oh, I should add that I have one of those fridge-style wine cellars (Vinoteque) that is quite heavy when empty. It's been about 3/4 full (something like 300+ bottles of wine) and it's still in my apartment. This building had a gut-renovation in the 80s when "half-assed" was ass enough. No problems yet. 400lb should be no problem...even on a steel table.

--A

[Kirk Gittings]

David Morrish is the most knowledgeable guy that I know of on the process. He and I went to graduate school together.

http://www.swgc.mun.ca/~dmorrish/

[Ron Marshall]

Hire piano movers, your back will thank you for the rest of your life.

Two heavy people weigh 400 lb.

[Michael Mutmansky]

David Morrish and Marlene MacCallum have written the best book in recent years on the photogravure process. It's well illustrated, and the information is reasonably correct and useful for actually doing gravure prints. That can't necessarily be said of some of the other books out there. There's apparently a lot of incorrect information and procedures detailed in some of the older books.

However, gravure is a very physical process. You can read about it all you want, but there comes a point where you have to actually do it, to start to get an understanding of how it works. For that there's nothing better than having a knowledgeable, experienced person to guide you along, because a bad habit formed at the beginning can hold you back tremendously.

I love the physicality of the printing process; inking plates and running them through the press. Doing it right is a long detailed process, but it is entirely satisfying for those who enjoy being physically attached to the process at a level much higher than even traditional silver gelatin or most of the alternative processes.


---Michael

[cyrus]

However, gravure is a very physical process. You can read about it all you want, but there comes a point where you have to actually do it, to start to get an understanding of how it works. For that there's nothing better than having a knowledgeable, experienced person to guide you along, because a bad habit formed at the beginning can hold you back tremendously.

Yeah that's why I took a workshop on copper plate photogravure, and I am already somewhat familiar with intaglio printing from a few courses at the School of Visual Arts.

Incidentally, for all of you people worried about the demise of photo paper, this may be an interesting way to go. You'll still need film to make a negative, and chemicals to develop it and lith film to make a positive - but no printing paper is involved. (if you use digital negs then you won't need any of that!)

Once you have a positive, you basically expose it on to a sheet of sensitized emulsion in a UV lightbox, stick the emulsion onto a copper plate, then dip the copper plate into progressively weaker solutions of ferric chloride so it can etch the hightlights/shadows of the image.

Then you ink up the etched plate and run it through the press with a sheet of paper and viola! you get a print.

The "non-toxic" version of this process photopolymer coatings that are washed out with water but does not give smooth tones (pretty close though)

See for example http://www.susanvossgravures.blogspot.com/

[Scott Davis]

I really wouldn't worry about weight of a press - I've got over 1600 books in my library, which is on the 2nd floor of my house. Most of them hardbound. That's enough to crush someone quite permanently if it ever fell over on them. The shelves have stayed where they are for the last five years, and not fallen through to the dining room below. After that, a measly old printing press wouldn't be a problem.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Two heavyish people in bed and the bed could easily be 400 lbs.

[Terence McDonagh]

I agree 400 lbs is probably not an issue, but I have no idea how big these things are.

In my apartment a few blocks from Cyrus', a 200 lb TV deflected the floor enough that I can see a slight tilt in a glass of water on my coffee table.

[cyrus]

I agree 400 lbs is probably not an issue, but I have no idea how big these things are.

In my apartment a few blocks from Cyrus', a 200 lb TV deflected the floor enough that I can see a slight tilt in a glass of water on my coffee table.

Eh, could be the gravitional pull from the tv set mass rather than the weight...

This big (actually mine would be a little heavier since I will order the "deluxe" version with a larger roller and steel or alum bed)

[Bill_1856]

What is all the big deal about photogravure? It's just another way to make pictures with a printing press, isn't it?
I have several Paul Strand photogravures from the old "Camera Works" magazine, and they don't look like anything special to me, certainly nothing to compare with a good silver/gelatin print, or even a good inkjet, for that matter.