The process known as photogravure is becoming a forgotten art, along with its counterpart, film photography.  Photogravure is originally a process that was essential for the development of modern photography, and has also had its own issues with becoming known as a fine art.  This process was used to make books, journals, portfolios, etc. and photographers chose this process to showcase their final prints.

            Photogravure is originally traced back to original printmaking as early as 1829.  This was a good ten years before Louis Daguerre first announced the invention of photography.  A brief history collaborated by www.photogravure.com will describe the process that Niépce used to discover photogravure:

“As early as 1814, Niépce had begun experimenting with light-sensitive varnish used in the new art of lithography. His landmark success came 12 years later when he reproduced the engraved portrait of Cardinal d'Amboise from a lithographic plate. To do this, he first coated a pewter plate with Bitumen of Judea (asphaltum), which by its nature is light sensitive. Then he covered the sensitized plate with the original waxed engraving and placed it in sunlight, which hardened the bitumen under the light areas of the image. The plate was then washed with a solvent, which washed away the unexposed areas of the image, and etched in an acid bath. After etching all of the bitumen was removed and the plate was printed with the traditional intaglio method. That same year, Niepce also succeeded making the first camera image showing a view out the window of his house and relying on the same materials and techniques borrowed from etching - bitumen of Judea on a pewter plate.  Unfortunately, Niépce's death in 1833 left Daguerre to pursue image making alone and, in 1840, he announced that he had developed the photographic process that bears his name. Daguerreotypes were magically precise mirror-like images produced on silver-plated copper. The new medium was quickly and enthusiastically embraced. ”

            Film photographers have simulated this style of photogravure by actually exposing their image onto paper, then use transfer solution to set the emulsion onto, in this case, a copper backing.  After processing the image on the copper backing as they would on photographic paper, the most difficult part of this replication is the Etching bath.  This is an extra step that is taken after the stop-bath, and this unique look is created by using Ferric chloride as a liquid solution.

            With my image that I’ve taken, digitally, this process was much simpler than with film, or even with the original process of photogravure.  With filters and paintbrushes, I was able to get an effect that was much like the film process.

This was a fun project.  The type above is my research paper that I included with the print.  I kind of want to do more with this type of photo process, but I'm not sure exactly how to go about doing it.  Anybody have any ideas? 

Right now, I'm thanking goddess that I went to Yoga with my dad today.  I feel GREAT . . . for right now.  I'm sure I'll feel like shit in the morning, though.  I'm so out of shape.

EDIT:  HOLY SHIT!  My shoulders are KILLING ME.  So much for feeling great . . .

It feels as if
we are d r i f t i n g apart
down the road of forgotten memories.
The path of forgotten friendship
that I've been down so many times before.

I wait for you to stop contact--
lose my number--
relinquish any and all old photographs
of us.

We are separated by distance,
an unkind evil
which leaves little time for catching up.
The highway that we travel so often,
so second nature, is the
road that  p  u  l  l  s . . .

the road that  s     t     r     e     t     c     h     e     s
our once tight knit bond.

It feels as if
we are d r i f t i n g apart
down the road of forgotten memories.
Time causes bonds to f
                                    a
                                       l
                                         l    into the vortex known as the past.