Photogravure
pho·to·gra·vure
ORGIN late 19th cent.:
from French, from photo- "relating to light" + gravure "engraving"
A means of reproducing a photograph by printing on paper from an inked and etched copper plate. Perfected by Karl Klíc in 1879, the process came into general use in the 1890s for photographic reproductions.
Over time, photogravures have become increasingly valued as works of fine art.
Today photogravure is considered one of the finest and most time intensive of the photographic processes.
Between 1868 and 1898 Thomas Annan, a leading Scottish photographer, photographed the "old and interesting landmarks" of Glasgow, where he was based. Most of the images show dark, narrow passages between slum buildings that were damp, dirty and overpopulated by the city's poor, who occasionally appear in doorways. Annan initially printed his wet-plate collodion negatives onto albumen and carbon paper but in 1900 issued them as photogravures in The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow.
Annan began his firm T. & R. Annan and Sons as a portrait studio and in 1883 purchased a license to the photogravure process from its inventor Karl Klic. The company soon became known for its high-quality printing in gravure, under the watchful eye of J. Craig Annan, an artistic photographer who went on to be a regular contributor to Camera Work, often producing his own photogravures for the journal. "The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow" is a significant record of the squalid conditions of the city at the time, but also is an outstanding example of pre-pictorialist grain gravure. The plates are sharp, rich and deep in tone, often revealing noticeable hand retouching.
Close No. 115, High Street
The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow, 1868
17.5 x 21 cm
Photogravure
Close No. 28 Saltmarket
The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow, 1868
18.3 x 22.5 cm
Photogravure
Close No. 11 Bridgegate
The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow, 1868
17.1 x 22.2 cm
Photogravure
Main Street Gorbals, Looking North
The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow, 1868
23.5 x 16.9 cm
Photogravure
High Street from College Open
The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow, 1868
24 x 17.8 cm
Photogravure
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