Digital BW, The Print

Austin writes:

> it appears to me that photogravure process has
> to use some kind of halftoning technique to get
> tonality, as it only uses a single ink.

It looks like another one of those time-consuming, artsy techniques that try
to substitute expensive, awkward, and highly variable hand work for image
content.  Many people are attracted to anything that has to be prepared
laboriously by hand, even if the result is no better than something that is
printed by machine in 30 seconds, and even if the image itself scarcely
merits the machine printing, much less the hand printing.

I was talking to a sculptor about this same problem yesterday.  Her
sculptures are great: lots of talent and superb execution.  But she can't
sell them because she works in polycarbonate plastic.  She says that nobody
wants to buy anything that isn't in wood, bronze, or stone, no matter how
nice it looks or how much talent it demonstrates.  Photography is much the
same way.