Thursday, February 09, 2006


Before the halftone process was invented at the end of the 19th century, the only way of printing photographs into books was through the photogravure process. This is an intaglio process often characterized by an embossed line around the image. On the immediate left you can see American pictorialist photographer Adolf Fassbender's 1938, City - Thy Name Be Blessed. I purchased this photogravure in Seattle for $100 some 12 years ago. It is now worth over $1000. On the far left is a photogravure by ex-Vancouverite Ian Martin. I took the photograph with infrared film in Paris and Martin converted it into the photogravure. Many photographers of the past had their photographs made into limited edition photogravures. The most famous of them was American Edward Curtis. But Ian Martin (who now lives in Washington State) is one of the few photographers who takes photographs only as an initial step towards his incredible photogravures. In Vancouver he is represented by the Bau-Xi Gallery.

The Photo Gravure II

Fassbender

Ian Martin
Ian Martin 2