Editing Photogravure (section)

==History==
[[File:W.E.F. Britten - Alfred, Lord Tennyson - St. Simeon Stylites.jpg|thumb|A 1901 photogravure illustration by [[William Edward Frank Britten|W. E. F. Britten]] for [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson]]'s poem [[St. Simeon Stylites (poem)|''St. Simeon Stylites'']].]]
===History of process===
The earliest forms of photogravure were developed by two original pioneers of [[History of photography|photography]] itself, first [[Nicéphore Niépce]] in France in the 1820s, and later [[Henry Fox Talbot]] in England. Niépce was seeking a means to create photographic images on plates that could then be etched and used to make prints on paper with a traditional printing press. He used prints (engravings etc.), waxing the paper to make it translucent, then laying this on a copper plate coated with light-sensitive [[bitumen]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Niépce and the Invention of Photography — Invention of photoengraving |url=https://photo-museum.org/niepce-and-the-invention-of-photography-invention-of-photoengraving/ |access-date=2025-02-01 |website=Nicéphore Niépce's House Museum |language=en-US}}</ref> Niépce's early images were among the first [[photograph]]s, pre-dating [[daguerreotype]]s and the later wet collodion photographic process. But the process was little used, not least because the original engraving was all but destroyed. But once a "transparent photographic positive" became possible, interest revived.<ref name="gascoigne">{{cite book|first=Bamber |last=Gascoigne | orig-date=1986 |date=2004-04-26 |edition=2nd |title=How to Identify Prints: A Complete Guide to Manual and Mechanical Processes from Woodcut to Inkjet |publisher=[[Thames & Hudson]] |isbn=050023454X |author-link=Bamber Gascoigne}}</ref>

Talbot, inventor of the [[calotype]] paper [[Negative (photography)|negative]] process, wanted to make paper prints that would not fade. He worked on his photomechanical process in the 1850s and patented it in 1852 ('photographic engraving') and 1858 ('photoglyphic engraving').<ref>{{cite web |url=https://foxtalbot.dmu.ac.uk/talbot/biography.html#printersink |title=Talbot's Correspondence: Biography |publisher=De Montfort University |access-date=2022-01-31}}</ref>

Photogravure in its mature form was developed in 1878 by Czech painter [[Karel Klíč]], who built on Talbot's research.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stulik |first=Dusan C. |title=Photogravure |last2=Kaplan |first2=Art |publisher=The Getty Conservation Institute |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-937433-10-9 |series=The Atlas of Analytical Signatures of Photographic Processes |location=Los Angeles |language=en}}</ref><sup>:4</sup> This process, the one still in use today, is called the Talbot-Klič process.<ref name="gascoigne" />

===History of use===
Because of its high quality and richness, photogravure was used for both original [[fine art]] prints in the form of photographs manipulated by various means on the negative<ref name="story">{{cite web |title=The Story of Photogravure |url=https://photogravure.com/story-of-photogravure/ |access-date=2022-01-31 |publisher=Katzman, Mark}}</ref> and for photo-reproduction of works from other media such as paintings. From the 1880s, the Talbot-Klič process was used commercially for very high quality reproductions of [[old master print]]s, excelling in capturing variations in tone.<ref name="gascoigne" />
[[File:Adi Holzer Werksverzeichnis 899 Satchmo (Louis Armstrong).jpg|alt=photogravure of Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet against a yellow background|thumb|206x206px|Adi Holzer, ''Werksverzeichnis 899 Satchmo'' ([[Louis Armstrong]]), photogravure and etching, 2002.]]
Photogravure practitioners, such as [[Peter Henry Emerson]], brought the art to a high standard in the late 19th century. This continued with the work of [[Alfred Stieglitz]] in the early 20th century, especially in relation to his publication ''[[Camera Work]]''.<ref name="story"/> This publication also featured the photogravures of [[Alvin Langdon Coburn]] who was a fine gravure printer and envisioned his photographic work as gravures rather than other photo-based processes. 

The speed and convenience of silver-gelatin photography eventually displaced photogravure which fell into disuse after the [[Edward S. Curtis]] gravures in the 1920s. One of the last major portfolios of fine art photogravures was [[Paul Strand]]'s ''Photographs from Mexico'' from 1940, reissued as ''The Mexican Portfolio'' in 1967 by DeCapo Press. 

Many years later, photogravure has experienced a revival in the hands of ''Aperture'' and Jon Goodman, who studied it in Europe. Photogravure is now actively practiced in several dozen workshops around the world. Contemporary artists working in the medium include [[Sama Alshaibi]].<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=2020-11-15 |title=The Photogravure Process |url=https://www.fmopa.org/the-photogravure-process/ |access-date=2022-07-19 |website=Florida Museum of Photographic Arts |language=en-US}}</ref> Photogravure may be used in combination with other print processes. 
[[File:Bayern 1914 107 König Ludwig III.jpg|alt=blue-green stamp of Ludwig III (a man with a beard shown in profile, facing left), surrounded by a wreath|left|thumb|139x139px|1914 stamp of [[Ludwig III of Bavaria]].]]

==== Stamps ====
Photogravure has often been used to print stamps. For example, between 1934 and 1936, stamps of [[George V|King George V]] were produced by the British postal service using photogravure,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Photogravure |url=https://www.postalmuseum.org/collections/highlights/philatelic-collection/british-stamps/george-v-stamps/george-v-definitives/photogravure/ |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=The Postal Museum |language=en-US}}</ref> as were the majority of British stamps from then until 1996.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Great Britain Concise Stamp Catalogue |publisher=Stanley Gibbons |date=May 2021 |isbn=9781911304869 |edition=2021 |location=Ringwood, Hants, UK |pages=43}}</ref> In the United States, the [[Bureau of Engraving and Printing]] began printing stamps in gravure from its own press in 1971.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Full-Color Gravure |url=https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/stamps-take-flight-creating-america%E2%80%99s-stamps/full-color-gravure |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=Postal Museum |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |language=en}}</ref>