Interpretation Over Reproduction

Photogravure isn’t about replication - it’s about resonance. 

Photogravure as a medium prioritises emotional truth over objective documentation and that opens a space for deeper engagement.

In a world saturated with digital images - each one sharp, colour-corrected, and endlessly replicable - it’s easy to forget that art doesn’t need to be accurate.

Photogravure resists this compulsion. It doesn't aim to reproduce an image perfectly. Instead, it invites interpretation. The plate is inked by hand. The tones shift slightly from print to print. The process introduces texture, warmth, irregularity.

Where most photography promises fidelity, photogravure delivers a feeling.

The maker as interpreter:

Every step in the photogravure process is a moment of choice. 

How dark or light should the positive acetate be? what settings to use on the UV exposure unit? What colour ink to used? How much ink stays on the plate? How heavily is it wiped? What paper will carry the image? These decisions aren’t incidental - they're interpretive. The artist isn’t just reproducing an image; they’re engaging with it, translating it, responding to it.

The result isn’t a carbon copy. It’s a conversation between image and maker. A visual echo of something remembered more than recorded.

This is where the medium’s emotional charge lives - not in what is shown, but in how it’s shown.

Resonance trumps resolution:

Photogravure slows the image down. It resists the speed and sameness of modern visual culture. That slowness is an invitation to look longer, to feel more deeply. It creates space for ambiguity, softness, nuance.

And when an image resonates, it lingers. Not because it is exact, but because it means something.