Photogravure came of age with the mid-19th century drive to present discoveries of faraway lands and the memories they stimulated. This exploration continues today with the current renaissance of photogravure enjoyed by practitioners and collectors alike. Transcending vast distances of geography, culture, and time, through these images the texture and variety of ordinary life take on new depth and significance.
Photogravure etchings are printed by hand from copperplates with numerous kinds of etching inks and papers. More than just a printmaking technique, photogravure etching is also a way of exploring the world that brings to light an incomparable variety of tone and texture: shimmering luminous highlights, deep multi-hued blacks, shadows within shadows, and the most subtle gradations of tone. They celebrate the spark of enlightenment that comes from chance observation, a glimpse of the higher reality permeating our everyday lives.
Site: Home・ホーム; Viewing・見聞; Learning・情報; Purchasing・ご注文; News ・ ﾆﾕｰｽ
Series: Temples ・寺; Dreamscapes ・ 夢; Seascapes ・ 海; Furusato ・ ふるさと; Pathways ・ 道; Mongolia ・ ﾓﾝｺﾞﾙ; Acts & Scenes ・ 町; New Prints ・ 新
May 2008: The cherry blossoms have moved north to Tohoku. In Kamakura and central Japan now it's azalea season. /// New print River of Light, click image at left to enlarge & zoom. /// Slideshow CDs now available. /// Intaglio and other works by Yuka Sasaki 2008.5.11 - 2009.4.12 at Kyo On Sho Sha, Katsunuma, Yamanashi Prefecture (Tel 0553-44-3577)
April 2008: Cherry blossom season: Laque de Garance outlined with black ink in First Blush. /// Next exhibit in Tokyo Nov 11 - 16 at Art-Obsession Gallery, Daikanyama, Tokyo. Details here.
January-February 2008: Zoom-in for a closeup view! Zoom now in place with many prints throughout the site, including five new prints.
December 2007: Recent acquisitions by the Fine Arts Museum of Houston (Texas): Bamboo Story, Meigetsuin, Westwind, Sub Rosa, Ozenuma, Bois de Moutiers, Turning Point. These will be exhibited at the Museum during 2008.
November 2007: Photos from an Oct/Nov 2007 trek through Nepal's remote villages and terraced rice-fields, along deafeningly swift glacier-fed rivers to the dazzling Himalayan peaks of the Ganesh Himal region.
November 2007: Fermentation and Awash are selected for the Lahti Triennial in Finland.
October 2007: A month-long exhibit of the Mongolia Series at the Francis Kyle Gallery in London.
Works in progress: The 'Works in Progress' section of the site shows photos that will become future photogravure etchings.
Site links: To discover how photogravure etchings are made, who invented the technique and why, learn about varieties of etching paper and ink, get guidance on framing, see related sites, or learn about assembling an art collection and investing in art, visit the Learning links. For on-line purchase and gallery information, news of exhibits and other announcements, visit the Purchasing and News links.
Small prints for closeup viewing, ideal for desktop, shelf, or any surface, are grouped here. See framing tips for novel ways of making original prints part of your surroundings.
Series links: Series links group prints that 'hang together' well as natural ensembles. The Series pages have detailed information about each print, such as image size, the etching ink, paper, and year of the edition.
Sub-Series: Explore each Series in depth through the linked sub-Series. For example, the Seascapes Series includes Waves, Currents, Traces, and Lakes. Clicking any image in the Series leads to a full-screen view. New works are here.
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. Of course it is always possible to return to the Series page to see all the images in the Series on one page.
Photogravure etchings shown at this site may be purchased on-line by using these links:
Purchase & order info: Temples ・ 寺, Dreamscapes ・ 夢, Seascapes ・ 海, Furusato ・ ふるさと, Pathways ・ 道, Mongolia ・ モンゴル, Acts & Scenes ・ 町; CDs
Airmail package delivery is fast -- and free! The price listed is the price you pay, no extra charges for postage, handling, or anything else. The easy purchasing procedure is explained at 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).
Three ways to search: <1> Try the Series links first. <2> Text-search with the box below (日本語OK); all pages with a given word, phrase, or 'search string' will appear, plus ads:
<3> The map of Kamakura has links to prints in the Temples and Seascapes Series from Kamakura.
Site Notes
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.
About the artist. An irreverent summary.
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.)
Zooming: From the viewer at the bottom of a full-screen image, use the slider or plus-button to zoom-in. (If the zoom controls aren't immediately visible, scroll down to bring them into view.) Pan anywhere around the image with the hand icon or directional buttons (◁△▽▷ ). Click the image to go to full-zoom, and click the right-most button to return to the initial view. Or use shift to zoom-out, and ctrl to zoom-in again. With this close-up look, virtual reality comes a step closer to the tactile experience of an actual photogravure etching.
Screen resolution: Full-screen images are best viewed at a screen setting of 1024 x 768 pixels.
Browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, and any other browser will work for this site.
Sending a message: Please enter (type) the address into your email software. The email address is not 'clickable' because this merely generates a ton of junk, so please type the email address one character at a time. You will get a quick answer and your privacy will be safeguarded. There are no ads, 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 that needed to make sure 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.
See for yourself!