Photography Is Printmaking

Photography and printmaking have always been in conversation, each influencing and reshaping the other. Printmakers draw from photographic imagery as both inspiration and raw material, transforming it through layers of ink, pressure, and texture. In the contemporary print studio, photomechanical techniques—photolithography, photogravure, polymer plate printing, collotype, screen-printing, laser and CNC engraving, and inkjet transfers—have become essential tools, pushing photographic imagery beyond the smooth tonal gradients of silver gelatin prints into a world of dots, lines, and bold, deliberate shapes.

This exhibition, curated by Professor Cassandra Hooper, Maass Gallery Intern Garrett Abell, and printmaking major Ethan Tate, brings together alumni who explore the tension and harmony between photography and print. Their works demonstrate how images shift when ink replaces light, when reproduction becomes an act of reinvention. In printmaking, a photograph is not simply transferred—it is reinterpreted, altered, and remade through process, becoming something tactile, layered, and unexpected.

Featuring artists from across generations, this collection speaks to the enduring connection between photography and printmaking, where the act of reproduction is never mere replication but always transformation, challenging how we see photographic imagery and reminding us that a print is never just an image—it is an object, a surface, a mark of the artist’s hand.

• Brenna Sastram (‘23)

• Liz Cuminale (‘24)

• Anonymous

• Eliza Hartley (’04)

• Marina Grize (‘10)

• Beth Garramone-Ross (’20)

• Stalgia Grigg (’16)

• Carly Moreno (’15)

• Emily Roberts-Negron (’06)

• Jenny McCormick (’01)

• Zane Smith (‘08)

• Xu Tan (‘21)

• Zaire Anderson (‘19)

• Sanne Vanderveen (‘18)