Jakob Hunosøe: Photogravure

In a series of new photogravures, Jakob Hunosøe revisits a number of his photographic works. With a practice that is already very analog – Hunosøe never uses artificial lighting and nothing is manipulated digitally – the photographs are taken through yet another hand-held process, and in that way added a new physicality. The ten new photogravures are currently presented in SPECTA’s Viewing room.

In selecting works to develop as photogravure, Jakob Hunosøe has let four “dogmas” become his guidelines:

1. The work does not have to be in color / An advantage is gained by opting out of the colors.

2. The work should have a simple visual expression.

3. The work should work in a small format.

4. The work should function better as a print than it did as a photograph.

Jakob Hunosøe’s photographs often show us something slightly incomprehensible, a mystery or a trick that makes us wonder and be a little suspicious. And this despite the fact that all the works are photographs of actual, real-life setups. That mystery seems to be reinforced in the new photogravures, where the works are printed in shades of gray and the black and white graphic expression gives the works an almost gothic and eerie feel. Is there a poltergeist at play? Is that the one who makes a mess? Makes the lid pop off the pot, the lamp hang askew or ties yarn around the radiator?

Jakob Hunosøe himself says about the work with photogravures:

“You can say that I try to massage a special version of reality into my photographic practice. I clean the image from all that is unnecessary and I want to rule the entire surface, so to speak. Which in a way works against the nature of photography, that is to capture what is seen from one’s angle. I have also struggled with that resistance in the execution of these photogravures, where it turned out to be very difficult to get these clean surfaces and graduations of gray tones. It is my opinion that the resistance and the counterintuitive approach give the works a good tension, and emphasizes that it has made sense to recreate many of them as photogravure.”