Back Room – Intaglio Print with Aquatint (State 1, 1/6, 1994, 11x14) by Kenney Mencher

 This print is part of my Fresh Finds project—where I’m working my way through old work and bringing pieces out of storage to finally share them.

Back Room is a black-and-white intaglio print with aquatint that I made in 1994 during my MFA program at the University of Cincinnati. It’s based on a film still—back then, I used to spend hours in the UC library hunting for books on cinema with rich black-and-white images I could turn into prints.

This is the first state of the print. That means it’s an early version, printed before I made changes or added detail in the plate. In this version, the lighting from the overhead lamp is simpler. I was experimenting with how to handle tone and atmosphere using aquatint. Only six prints exist in this state—this is number 1 of 6.

Intaglio is a printmaking method where the image is etched into a metal plate, inked, and pressed into damp paper using a high-pressure press. Aquatint adds tonal range—sort of like a soft watercolor effect created through etched texture.

There’s a visible plate mark around the image (which is typical for this technique), and a small buckle in the upper left corner of the paper. That should flatten once it’s framed.

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