As this is my final university project I wanted to try a style of photography I had not attempted before whilst I still had experts on hand to help. Back in March there had been a Google Doodle to mark the 216th Birthday of English photographer and botanist Anna Atkins. Atkins is credited with being the first to use a photographic printing process that produced a cyan-blue print, a cyanotype. Atkins used the process to create a limited series of cyanotype books that documented ferns and other plant life from her seaweed collection. Cyanotypes were used extensively by engineers as a simple and low-cost process to create copies of drawings, and were named blueprints.
Image courtesy of Anna Atkins, Ceylon Fern, 1854
I was very taken with the vivid blue colour of the images that were created through this process and wanted to try it myself. I ordered a starter kit from Silverprint and scoured the local hedgerows for some interesting props to create my image. It took several attempts, with the first completely disappearing after a couple of hours, but I did manage to finally produce something I was pleased with. You can't see it very well on the image below, but just at the top of the feather it has captured where it has slightly parted. Some parts are a lot more detailed than I thought they would be
I need to do a lot more experimenting as the white is still fading away after a while, and I want to try it with a digital negative to perfect this before I have to submit my images. I am also attracted to double exposure images and think this could be used to portray the good vs. evil sides to the environment. This is another new process I need to learn, and then turn into a cyanotype print. I have lots to be working on for the next couple of weeks.
Please do let me know if you have tried making cyanotypes. Can you recommend any other kits to try? Or where I might start with learning how to create a double exposure print. I'd love to hear what you think.
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