Photo-etching or dust grain photogravure
Photo-etchings or dust grain photogravures are made on light-sensitive plates. This time-consuming intaglio printmaking was the first step in the invention of photography, often called héliogravure. Unfortunately one can be mislead by reproductions on metal cylinders, but the real craft is of uncomparable beauty. Talbot-Klic were the 2 inventors.
dated 1981 until 1988
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Woman-Bouquet
1988Art-Deco statue-photo printed together with the negative of a flowerpainting. (The difficult technics of photo-etchings or heliography)
Phoenix
1988Rising from it's ashes.
Chained
1982Feeling chained to the mountain, even if light shines inside. Photo-etching on 3 light-sensitive plates.
Le printemps
1983Photo-etching of a woman representing spring, dancing barefeet.
Butterbeans
1982Dust grain photo-etching with aquatint.(Calligraphy)
Calligraphy 1
1982Macro-photo of Italian beans. A positive from a negative the size of the plate is scotched on a light-sensitive plate and exposed for 1/2 hour to a strong lamp at 75cm distance. Ink was made by myself, the artist with copperplate oil and heavy French black powder.
Dance of the needles
1982Conceptual art.
Calligraphy 2
1981Dust grain photogravure on 2 plates, with application of many aquatints.
Keep In Line
1981I used 2 light-sensitive plates. The 2nd plate got the imprint after spraying the beads. I do not use an electrically driven press. My hands can feel the steel roller arrive at the edge of a plate and I slow down there. Printing this way results in more depth of the etching.
Trapped fly
1981A 'trap for flies' was made by a circle of threads and needles. On the image, transfered from the first plate onto a second plate I placed threads and needles and thus obtained their 'shadow' by spraying them. This shadow got 'aquatint'.
Fly 2
1981Detail of the previous print, enlarged.
Nettle-plant
1981Photo-etching made with 2 light sensitive plates of a nettle-plant surrounded by needles and threads.
Bonjour
1981A cloth woven on a miniature loom. Embossment - the press pushes the moisturized paper into the lines of a plate, who was bitten for 4 hours in strong acid. Print without ink.
Clover with 4 leaves
1981A clover leaf was drawn in a darkroom on a light-sensitive plate. Two more plates created more depth. A 4th plate got the image of a big needle. After printing them, a thick thread was stitched through the hole of the needle, resulting in a 4 leaves plant!
Cloth
1981After drawing on a light-sensitive plate with a nailbrush and soap, and after a dip in diluted acid, the etching resembled a cloth.
Cloth 2
1981A woven piece of tissue was used in this photo-etching.