Working with Polymer Plate Photogravure - Winter 2025

Join Master Printer Ray Bidegain for this unique opportunity to discover the polymer plate photogravure process. During this two-day workshop, participants will learn hands-on how to take their original photographs and print them using etching inks and an etching press.

Topics we will cover include:

• Digital positives files
• Exposing and developing the polymer plates using direct to plate methods
• Inks and materials needed for printmaking
• Inking and wiping the plates
• Paper selection
• Printing the inked plates on a professional etching press.

All needed materials will be supplied and participants will leave the session with a small edition of photogravure prints from several images.

INSTRUCTOR BIO
Ray Bidegain was born in Tucson, Arizona and started studying photography in high school. At age 17 he began working on weekends for a large studio that offered wedding photography to the local community in Southern Arizona. Ray graduated from Brooks Institute of Photography in 1981 and returned to Tucson to operate his own studio before moving to Portland, Oregon. After 17 years as a studio portrait photographer, Ray turned to fine art photography, eventually teaching himself the art of platinum printing, photogravure and, later, wet plate collodion. Fascinated by both the science and the art of photography and printmaking, Ray is an engaging and respected photo instructor throughout the Pacific Northwest. Ray’s photographs are internationally collected, and his work has been exhibited across the United States, and in France, Germany, and Scotland.

Images © Ray Bidegain