Etched in memory. From deeply etched copperplates, ink permeates the fibers of hand-made papers to create an incomparable variety of tone and texture: shimmering luminous highlights, deep multi-hued shadows within shadows, and the most subtle gradations of tone. Photogravure etching connects the spontaneity of chance observation with memories of our past and intimations of our future. Printed by hand with many kinds of etching inks and papers, linking sight and touch, they offer a glimpse of the higher reality permeating our everyday lives.
This character, guuzen in Japanese, means unexpected, accidental, fortuitous, unplanned, unpredictible -- qualities needed for appreciation of art, and navigating through life (and this site). See for yourself; and if you like what you see at this site, consider purchasing an original photogravure etching. With free world-wide shipping, it can be delivered within a week of ordering. Convenient forms are available from every full-screen page. For quick answers to any question, just ask!
Search by mood at Xpress -- designed to find prints quickly based on subjective preferences. Dynamic, reflective, mysterious, spontaneous, luminous, just click one term and prints in that mood appear. You can search by texture too, another subjective quality that's important to viewer preferences. Rough or soft, flowing or granular, linear, rhythmic are some of the qualities of touch that photogravure etchings embody. You can also search by ink, paper, image size, place, and price. Please give it a try, and send your views to...
Views, where your comments will help improve the site for all. News of upcoming exhibits is there too.
Ganesh Himal (above left), the view from 4500 meters looking up at 7000-meter-high peaks of the Himalayas near Tibet, part of the 'Explorations' exhibit starting January 8, 2010 in Washington DC; Videos on photogravure etching technique and exhibits.
Interiors -- see how others are enjoying art you can live with.
Currently scheduled exhibits:
January 8 - May 10, 2010: Cosmos Club, Washington, DC, USA: 'Explorations'
April 1 - 16, 2010: Manoir Saint Cyr, Saint-Cyr-Sur-Loire, France
May 1 - June 9, 2010: Devin Borden Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston, Texas
Nov 8 - 13, 2010: Eumeria Gallery, Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan
Spring 2011: Oporto, Portugal
Map of Kamakura with links to prints in Kamakura (links are working now), plus three illustrated walking tours.
Contact ・ 連絡: Please type into your email (日本語 OK).
Videos: A six-minute tour of Kamakura's renowned Hokokuji bamboo garden and my nearby photogravure workshop -- Accidental Discoveries and Unexpected Pleasures. Another take, by Kamakura-TV, is here (in Japanese). Vladivostok-TV interviews Artetage Modern Art Museum Director Alex Gorodny and me during the Sept 2008 Seascapes exhibit there (in Russian).
Site links: To learn how photogravure etchings are made, who invented the technique and why, get guidance on framing, buying, and conserving art, see related sites, visit the Learning links. For on-line purchase and gallery information, visit the Purchasing page. Get an independent, art-inspired view of the world at Views of The Kamakura Print Collection.
Small prints, big pleasure. Prints of intimate scale invite closeup viewing of texture and tone. Conveniently grouped here, they fit easily on the desktop or any handy surface. See framing tips for novel ways of making original prints part of your surroundings.
Ensembles: Exploring each Series and Sub-Series is a good way to find prints that form natural ensembles. The Series pages show print and paper dimensions, so that frames can be made compatible with your space. The Seascapes Series, for example, includes Waves, Currents, Traces, and Lakes. Clicking any image in the Series leads to a full-screen view. New works are here.
These photogravure etchings may be purchased on-line by clicking the order button below the image on any full-screen page.
Navigation: Navigation bars at the top of each page show the path from this Home Page, with links showing each step of the way. Navigation bars at the bottom of each page provide links to every Series (Seascapes and so forth) of photogravure etchings. On the full-screen pages, navigation bars at the bottom provide links to all other prints in the active Series. With these links it is possible to see the entire Series sequence full-screen without returning to the Series page, to proceed in any sequence, and to take as much time with each image as needed. To see all the images in a Series on one page, just return to the Series page with the top navigation bar.
When purchasing, please note our airmail package delivery is free. That's right, no charge for shipping anywhere in the world, and delivery is fast -- generally within one week of payment. How can we afford to do this? It's very simple: I concentrate on etching and printing, instead of figuring shipping charges. So the price you see listed is the price you pay, no extra charges for postage, handling, or anything else. Pay in Euros, US Dollars, Pounds Sterling, Swiss Francs, Danish or Norwegian Krone, Swedish Krona, Japanese Yen, Hong Kong Dollars, Singapore Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Australian Dollars, or New Zealand Dollars. The easy purchasing procedure is explained on the Purchasing page. Your original photogravure etching can be delivered in a week. Questions? Get quick answers by return email...
Contact ・ 連絡: Please type into your email (日本語 OK).
Four ways to search: <1> Series links, found on each page.
<2> Search by mood, texture, ink, paper, place, image size, and price at Xpress. Scroll down to find the search terms.
Japanese text (kanji): To see the Japanese titles of these prints on your computer, set 'character encoding' to Unicode (utf-8), shift-JIS, another Japanese font, or 'Auto-detect Japanese' if Japanese fonts are installed on your computer. In Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Netscape, the character-encoding setting is in the View menu. If Japanese fonts are not installed on your computer, the kanji may appear as blocks or something else unintelligible.
Searching: Print and Series titles may also be found through the search box. The Series and sub-Series are described in more detail on the Viewing page. If a search shows old pages, refresh by pressing the F5 key, or the 'Reload' button. Do this anyway to be sure of seeing the most recent version of each page. (Otherwise your browser may show its 'previously cached' [stored] version of the page.)
Screen resolution: Full-screen images are best viewed at a screen setting of 1024 x 768 pixels.
Browsers: Firefox is the recommended browser. It has the best security and privacy controls, and its open-source philosophy makes it as widely compatible as possible. Other browsers such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Opera, and others will also work for this site. If text is hard to read, please set your browser to override the background and text colors used at this site, and set your own preferred colors. (This site uses dark background and light text colors.)
Sending a message: Please enter (type) the address into your email software. The email address is not 'clickable' because this generates a ton of junk, so please type the email address one character at a time. You will get a quick answer. Privacy notice: There are no ads, cookies, tracking devices, no means of passing any viewer information onto others. I send announcements of new prints or exhibits very infrequently. When you order a print, the only information required is your email address to confirm your order, and mailing address so that the print is delivered to you.
Photogravure etching and other printmaking techniques: Photogravure etchings are also called gravure prints, copperplate engravings, aquatint dust-grain gravures, or héliogravures. 'Polymer gravure' refers to plates with a polymer resist as the printing surface; despite the name, there is no gravure, etching, or engraving. 'Photo-etching' is a half-tone process similar to commercial printing; the dots are visible and the tonal range is limited by the lack of a resist that would allow for variable-depth etching. 'Photo-lithography' is a term used in the semiconductor industry to describe the patterning of semiconductor wafer resists and printed circuit boards prior to etching. 'Rotogravure', despite the similar-sounding name and the Easter-song fame, is an essentially different process, formerly used for Sunday supplements; as a fast production process, its depth and tonal range were limited by the rotary (as opposed to flat) plate and by the thinner inks used. Photogravure is one of many 19th-century photographic processes, which include platinum, palladium, carbon, cyanotype, and others. See 'Photogravure Etching in the Intaglio Tradition' to learn more about how photogravure is related to the origins of engraving and etching.
This Kamakura Print Collection site first appeared on the World Wide Web in August 1997. Starting with photogravure etchings from Kamakura, Japan, it has since grown to include images from other parts of Japan, Asia, and Europe. The site also provides practical how-to information for people seeking to purchase photogravure etchings, or make their own.
guuzen in Japanese, means unexpected, accidental, fortuitous, unplanned, unpredictible -- qualities needed for appreciation of art, and navigating through life (and this site). See for yourself; and if you like what you see at this site, consider purchasing an original photogravure etching. With free world-wide shipping, it can be delivered within a week of ordering. Convenient forms are available from every full-screen page. For quick answers to any question, just ask!
into your email (日本語 OK).