This three-day intensive workshop is designed for photographers and printmakers that wish to learn the copperplate photogravure process.

Students will be guided by Gravurist Unai San Martin through all the steps: making digital transparencies, exposing, etching and printing their work.

[Photo © Unai San Martin]

In this hands-on etching workshop, students will work with traditional copper plate and experiment with the photogravure process. Students will be able to complete up to three 8×10 inch copper plates and use an extensive array of papers and inks, producing limited-edition prints.

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Photogravure, an intaglio process developed between 1850 and 1880, was one of the first successful printing techniques used to edition photographic images. Its tonal and archival qualities are so superb, that even after the arrival of more commercially viable processes in the early 20th century, photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Curtis, and Paul Strand used it to edition some of their most important works. Fine art presses and book publishers still use the process today.

Unai San Martin has won several prestigious awards for his evocative and subtle photogravures, including the Joan Miro and  Sotheby’s first prize, and the first prize in the National Printmaking Competition in Madrid. His work is in more than 20 museums as well as in collections in Europe and the United States, such as the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and the di Rosa Collection. He has taught workshops on the photogravure  process both locally and overseas and has made gravures for almost 20 years.