Quote:
Originally Posted by jnanian  ...a photographic print isn't much different than a scan, or book print, poster, lithograph or magazine, newspaper they are all mechanical reproductions. |
You don't understand print making. Lithographs, intaglio prints, and relief prints are all originals - even though there may be multiple copies. The printing media (stone, plate, or wood / linoleum block) is not considered the original piece of art because the image is reversed, is not in the final color(s), is not presented on the paper chosen, and is not signed by the artist as a piece of art.
Until a print is pulled from the stone, plate, or block, there is not a piece of original art. This is the same as investment cast sculptures - the original is the casting and not the wax model or mould.
Further, when the artist is through with printing the printing media is usually destroyed; as is the case with the mould in investment casting, and in the lost wax method, the wax model is destroyed in making the mould.