Polymer Photogravure

Winnipeg Neighbourhood.
Polymer Photogravure.
11.25cm x 20cm. 2012.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a workshop about Polymer Photogravure at the Highpoint Center for Printmaking. I wanted to learn a new printmaking medium and it was super fun. I was glad I had some background knowledge in photography, screenprinting and intaglio printing, since the polymer photogravure process seems to be a blend of all those processes. After printing a digital file onto a special film, the film, as well as an aquatint screen, are exposed onto the polymer plate in a light unit with UV light. The polymer plate then gets gently washed out with water and aside from drying the plate is ready to be printed (see polymer plate below). Once we figured out the printer settings and exposure times, it seemed to be quite easy. I'm not sure yet how I'll include this technique in my future work since most of my work is not exactly photographic, but I hope to do something with it sometime. 

For the Winnipeg Neighbourhood piece (above) I reverted to an old idea that I have reworked several times already and I keep coming back to. Once again I pulled out some of the photos I have of Winnipeg houses and arranged them in the contact sheet style to create the impression of multiple street scenes of one of my old neighbourhoods. Even though this was initially a photo project about colour, I really like how wonderfully wintery this little print looks in black and white. The contrast worked out well and I still have a nice range of medium grey tones in the buildings.