The Kamakura Print Collection　・　鎌倉プリント・コレクションへようこそ
Photogravure etchings by Peter Miller・ ﾌｫﾄｸﾞﾗﾋﾞｭｰﾙ (銅版画技法)・日本語

Full-screen pages have direct links for purchasing the specific print shown. To start ordering, click the order button below the full-screen image. This links to a PayPal order page showing the number, title, and price of that print. If the PayPal page is in Japanese, and English is preferred, please click the dropt-down list at the top-right of the screen, and select English there. An illustration of how to do this is shown in the general purchasing instructions.

To select a short-list of prints of interest quickly, search Xpress by mood -- Dynamic, Reflective, Mysterious, Sensual, Spontaneous, Expansive, Elegiac, Intimate, Luminous. Or by texture: Rough, soft, flowing, granular, linear, rhythmic. Also by ink, paper, image size, place, Series, and price. (Please scroll down the xpress Home Page to find the search terms.) Discover the big pleasure in small prints, see all the prints from northern Europe, for example.

The Seascapes Series plunges into the turbulence of waves, flows with currents, picks up the traces left by wind and life forms on sand patterns, and reflects the depths of lakes.

The Pathways Series invites the eye to traverse wide expanses, sinuous trails, mysterious and dangerous destinations. Northern latitudes around the world share a rugged simplicity of character in the North Country prints, glaciers, despite becoming an endangered species as the snows of yesteryear melt away, keep all of their grandeur. The Brambles, another set of Pathways, outline vortices, networks, nerve pathways, and other forms of interconnectedness. Prints venturing 'Beyond' extend the journey of the eye into unexplored terrirtory.

In Dreamscapes, images of dreams, ecstasies, transcendent experiences that reveal themselves for only a brief moment appear. Visions of other times and places than our own occur in memory, that curious sense of dé ja-vu that insists we've 'been there before', and in the reflections that bring the past into unexpected confluence with the present. In fantasy we express impossible and yet inspiring desires, themes that occur time and again in art and life. One of them is the pastoral fantasy, that vision of bucolic country life that enchants apartment-dweller and suburbanite alike. Japan's version of the pastoral fantasy is its cherry blossoms, a fleeting springtime idyll but its temples and gardens and country towns (furusato) display their rural virtues year-round. Fantasy of another variety arises from mystery, which can provide a refuge from our overly rationalistic world. We cannot explain everything, and on occasion it is more satisfying to appreciate the moment in some other way. Children know this and often are completely absorbed in wonderment and play -- to which another subset of Dreamscapes is dedicated.

The Temples Series shows the temples, shrines, and gardens of Kamakura. Japanese hometowns and country byways are shown in the Furusato Series. The Mongolia Series gathers images of the Gobi Desert and the Altai Mountains. The Acts & Scenes Series looks at little dramas and momentary encounters of everyday life.

A navigation bar near the top of each Series page indicates the path from the Home Page. Another navigation bar near the bottom shows other Series and sub-Series pages. Full-screen views (obtained by clicking any image in any Series) can be viewed in sequence, using the navigation bar near the bottom of the screen, scrolling down if needed.

Site Notes

Explore a Series  to  create natural ensembles. The Series pages show print and paper dimensions, to make sure frames fit the space you have in mind. The Seascapes Series  includes Waves, Currents, Traces, and Lakes. Clicking any image in the Series leads to a full-screen view, where the order button is at lower right. New works here here. These photogravure etchings may be purchased on-line by clicking the order button below the image on any full-screen page.

Navigation: Navigation bars at the top of each page show the path from this Home Page, with links showing each step of the way. Navigation bars at the bottom of each page provide links to every Series (Seascapes and so forth) of photogravure etchings. On the full-screen pages, navigation bars at the bottom provide links to all other prints in the active Series. With these links it is possible to see the entire Series sequence full-screen without returning to the Series page, to proceed in any sequence, and to take as much time with each image as needed. To see all the images in a Series on one page, just return to the Series page with the top navigation bar.

Japanese text (kanji): To see the Japanese titles of these prints on your computer, set 'character encoding' to Unicode (utf-8), shift-JIS, another Japanese font, or 'Auto-detect Japanese' if Japanese fonts are installed on your computer. In Firefox and Internet Explorer, the character-encoding setting is in the View menu. If Japanese fonts are not installed on your computer, the kanji will not appear.

About the artist. An irreverent summary.

Searching: In addition to Xpress, print and Series titles may also be found through the search box. The Series and sub-Series are described in more detail on the Viewing page. Refresh cached (stored) pages by pressing the F5 key, or Ctrl-R, or the 'Reload' button. Do this anyway to be sure of seeing the most recent version of each page.

Screen resolution: Full-screen images are best viewed at a screen setting of 1024 x 768 pixels, or higher.

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Sending a message: Please enter (type) the address into your email software. You will get a quick answer. Privacy notice: There are no ads, cookies, tracking devices, no means of passing any viewer information onto others. When you order a print, the only information required is your email address to confirm your order, and mailing address so that the print is delivered to you.

Photogravure etching and other printmaking techniques: Photogravure etchings are also called gravure prints, copperplate engravings, aquatint dust-grain gravures, or hé liogravures. 'Polymer gravure' refers to plates with a polymer resist as the printing surface despite the name, there is no gravure, etching, or engraving. 'Photo-etching' is a half-tone process similar to commercial printing the dots are visible and the tonal range is limited by the lack of a resist that would allow for variable-depth etching. 'Photo-lithography' is a term used in the semiconductor industry to describe the patterning of semiconductor wafer resists and printed circuit boards prior to etching. 'Rotogravure', despite the similar-sounding name and the Easter-song fame, is an essentially different process, formerly used for Sunday supplements as a fast production process, its depth and tonal range were limited by the rotary (as opposed to flat) plate and by the thinner inks used. Photogravure is one of many 19th-century photographic processes, which include platinum, palladium, carbon, cyanotype, and others. See 'Photogravure Etching in the Intaglio Tradition' to learn more about how photogravure is related to the origins of engraving and etching.

This Kamakura Print Collection site first appeared on the World Wide Web in August 1997. Starting with photogravure etchings from Kamakura, Japan, it has since grown to include images from other parts of Japan, Asia, and Europe. The site also provides practical how-to information for people seeking to purchase photogravure etchings, or make their own.

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