Lothar Osterburg : Photogravure

Our first multi-day workshop of the summer was with Lothar Osterburg, a master printer and fascinating artist. I highly recommend looking at his website, his pieces are really lovely. Lothar works with memories and cloudy ideas. In order to depict these things the way they are seen in his mind, he utilizes miniature models and recreates scenes. He often uses found materials from the street or everyday objects, like toothpicks. Lothar also teaches at Bard College and has been exhibited around the world.


I had tried photogravure once in college using a polymer. Lothar's method is much more involved, using multiple baths and needing a lot more precision in timing. The CPW catalog describes the method perfectly:

"Photogravure is a continuous tone photographic etching process which produces a quality and tonality range that exceeds those of a regular silver print by far. The blacks in particular have a richer, non-reflective, velvety surface, what a silver print never could achieve. These tonalities
are achieved by etching a copper plate gradually from the deepest shadows to the brightest highlights. This way the photogravure is capable of producing a much wider range of tones than any other photographic or printmaking process. The finished plate is printed like an etching on a heavy rag paper."

The first two days were spent at CPW doing the technical work and learning about photogravure. After getting some background on Lothar, hearing about his working method and looking at a lot of test prints, we began prepping the plates. The student's cleaned plexi, sensitized a lot of paper, and printed out digital negatives.


Then it was back outside to learn more about timing and levels of the 6 etching baths.




Lothar has an incredible energy about him, which kept the students interested even though it was a lot of information to process.

The next three days were spent at Women's Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY.


Using their facilities, the students were able to prepare their plates, learn about inks and printing technique, and aquatint.



Finally, each participant was able to print their plate to paper. The students each walked away with at least one test print of each plate. They all seemed to have had a lot of fun over the 5 days and were excited about the possibilities that the medium held for their work. Having had a little bit of experience with photogravure before the workshop, I knew how complicated the process can be. Lothar was a really amazing teacher, he was able to explain an incredibly complicated process in a matter of days.