Offset Lithographic printing: Barcelona Vertical!

[RJ-]

Hi,

Trying to remember my password for about 8 attempts, I finally logged in and realised from the forum reminder of the number of posts I've made, that I haven't been very active on the modern internet side of photography at all! Trying to correct this now 🙂

Two years ago, I visited Barcelona where I saw a stunning exhibition of hand pulled silver gelatin prints in Gothica, the trendy part of the city where the exhibitiojn took place. The images were created by Soren Berenguer through his battered Hasselblad Xpan using a combination of traditional printing and lith printing techniques, Agfa APX25; Konica IR750nm film and Kodak HIE, developed in Rodinal and printed onto Oriental Seagull & Forte papers via traditional silver gelatin and lith printing techniques. Two years later, his handsomely proportioned book has finally been released in a limited run:

http://www.casabatllo.es/wp-content...ren-berenguer.jpg.pagespeed.ic.w-NlIZvIth.jpg

I've had some disappointing experiences trying digital printing for book publications; photogravure and offset lithography still offer the best means to my eye, for interpreting a photograph in a book form and so it's extremely pleasing to have a book delivered to me in traditional offset tri-tone lithography, supervised by the photographer, for his first love - Barcelona - his home city which he has meditated through photography to deliver an intensely personal vision of this fabulous city and its less commonly perceived beauty.

http://barcelonavertical.com/

All the images were exhibited in the same location in Gothica, and it's fascinating seeing the detail which the offset lithography brings to the print form. There is a real quality to off-set lithographic printing which I hope, readers here will come to share their appreciation of, or at least, feel curious enough to go out and re-discover it before it gets wiped off our eternal skill base with the advancing digitisation of the printing and book making art.

Being mostly fond of the square format, it was rather arresting to see such a bold format for a book, exhibiting the strengths of the Hasselblad Xpan in its vertical landscape format only. It's a highly original book, and I struggle to think of many vertical panoramic full frame Xpan books printed out there.

It is available in Spain, France and Germany through major retailers like FNAC or Amazon however I don't think the UK distribution wing has got out yet (however I did lug a few sealed copies over to the UK if anyone is interested!)

Kind regards,

RJ

www.luxcamera.co.uk

 

[nikon_sam]

I've been in the Printing Industry almost as long as I've been doing Photography...seen lots of printing in my lifetime...done a ton of printing too...
Depending on the press and the pressman the Offset press can deliver fine work...depending on the Line Screen used they can produce images that look almost like the real thing...a good eye will know the difference...
I had the pleasure of doing some printing in Barcelona back in the mid 90's...a beautiful place to visit and photograph...actually had some of my work published there by a local photo chain magazine...Foto Systema Magazine...

 

[tunalegs]

I don't know if offset printing will ever disappear, so far as I know, for really large runs it is still about the cheapest ways to go. I haven't printed anything in about five or six years though so I'm not really up to date on that sort of thing. I've done a few "print on demand" type books though and was not disappointed by the printing - more by the paper used.

 

[shadowfox]

Looks like a beautiful book.

Thanks for sharing about it.

 

[nongfuspring]

I don't know if offset printing will ever disappear, so far as I know, for really large runs it is still about the cheapest ways to go. I haven't printed anything in about five or six years though so I'm not really up to date on that sort of thing. I've done a few "print on demand" type books though and was not disappointed by the printing - more by the paper used.

Yes, it's definitely not going anywhere. Most packaging/posters etc are done with offset. Only really economical for really large runs though (10s of thousands), but digital offset might be a different story. I had some colour prints done with digital offset a couple of years ago, they looked really great.

 

[charjohncarter]

This looks like a beautiful project. I would like to see the original prints.

 

[RJ-]

Thanks for your thoughts everyone.

I've never been enthralled by any print on demand book - perhaps there are ones which other avid readers here might recommend for me to check out?

There is something special about the quality of offset lithography when it is supervised throughout its process by the photographer. Perhaps, only the most enthusiastic photography book readers ascertain this quality, even if it is light years away from the calibre of the older photogravure book printing of the last century.

John - I'm not sure the exhibition will ever travel to the United States, although here is how the exhibition appeared in Barcelona:

It is a rather unusual format for exhibition, and very striking. If you visit Barcelona, you could get in touch with the photographer. He could show you some fascinating perspectives, such as those imaged in the book 😉

Kind regards,

RJ

www.luxcamera.co.uk

 

[Daniel Teoli Jr.]

Very nice! Thanks for the rundown.

China seems to be the leader in offset pretty much. Don't know that they do as good as the best US or Europe did, but I've seen some nice work from China.

I hand print my books in small runs with 3 ink jet printers. Back in the 70's I used to use wet prints dry mounted back to back. I didn't make many books that way.