ARTH 566(F) Photo / Gravure
The convergence of the camera and the printing press was undoubtedly one of the most significant technological and artistic byproducts of the nineteenth-century photographic revolution. The perfection of photomechanical printing, a major preoccupation of the earliest generations of photographers, offered a number of distinct advantages, including greater image permanence, efficient mass reproducibility, and the luxuriant tonal effects afforded by printers' ink on paper. In this medium-centered seminar we will concentrate on three historical moments in the history of photogravure: 1. the period of discovery and invention in the mid-nineteenth century (Niépce, Talbot, Fenton, Baldus, Nègre); 2. the legitimization of photogravure as an art form by members of the Photo-Secession (Stieglitz, Steichen, Coburn, Seeley, Strand); and, 3. the revival of photogravure in the hands of photographers, printmakers and ateliers from the 1970s to the present day (Jon Goodman, Rauschenberg, Close, Dine, Graphicstudio).
Format: seminar. Requirements: each participant will lead discussions of several reading assignments, in addition to a final presentation and research paper.
Enrollment limit: 12 (expected: 8-12). Preference will be given to graduate students and then to senior majors.
Hour: GANZ