Alternative Processes: Cyanotypes

Collaboritive design (Far left): (clockwise from top left) Cynthia Wood, Morgan Scheible, Joel Brenden (pine swatch), Hannah Belotte, Britten Walker, Rachael Holy, Jeffery Marotta, Lisa Stack, and Vera Marie Langhans:

Artists (clockwise from top center): Britten Walker, Hannah Belotte; Vera Marie Langhans, Joel Brenden

Named for the deep blue produced by the printing process, the Cyanotype is one of the oldest methods of photographic printing. It was introduced in 1842, only five years after Louis Daguerre unveiled what we now recognize as modern photography.

A solution of potassium ferricyanide and iron ammonium citrate is applied to paper or other surface and allowed to dry. The solution is responsive to ultraviolet (UV) light. When washed in water, areas of the surface exposed to UV light turn to a deep blue often known as Prussian Blue.

Cyanotpe is a contact printing process, meaning the object producing the final image must be placed directly on the printing surface rather than being optically enlarged as in other photo processes.

Each student in the class brought a film negative or other flat object and together we created a design on a piece of coated paper. Since there was not adequate sunlight we placed the prepared paper with the objects together in a proofing easel in front of a 500-watt halogen worklight [with the UV filter removed] and exposed the paper for about 15 minutes. The objects were set aside and the print was placed under running water to “wash out”. All areas that had been blocked from light rinsed away, revealing the white of the paper, all areas of dye touched by UV light remained and become the deep Prussian Blue seen above.

Western New York Film Group on Flickr

I've started a Flickr group for film photography in Buffalo and Western New York. The group is called "They are without memories, without plans", and is open to any analog photography originating in Western New York and the Niagara Frontier. Spend some time to look around, enjoy, and share!

by Flickr member Linden Tea

Britten Walker

Erie Community College, Orchard Park

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Britten’s prints are striking for their precision, the vividness of the detail, and his attentiveness to tonality and contrast. The compositions are orderly yet organic, usually eschewing architectural rigidity in favor of a response to the subject and forms within the environment. In “Untitled (waterfall and rocks)” the materials of rock, water and flora all find harmony within the frame, the water dissolving into the atmosphere above, the tiers of shale and peat anchor the vapor of trees along the top.

“Rocky Waters” distills much of this into a bare poetic expression – the opening 4-minute chord in "Vorspiel", the prelude of Wagner’s Das Rheingold. The sluggish exposure renders the water as abstract strokes, perpetual motion, a force. Alone near the top third of the frame is the only static subject, a point of rock barely rising above the rush of water. With no reference to context or scale this is a wholly different kind of natural abstraction than that of, say, Edward Weston. Speaking most keenly to senses of sound and kinesis, the image is not formal, but elemental.

Britten also utilizes this awareness of harmony and discord to create visual puns and sleight-of-hand, as in "Untitled (G.E.)". The challenge presented to the student photographers was to photograph typography in a way that would emphasize its pictorial, sculptural and formal characteristics rather than simply repeating existing meaning and context. Here the icon of industry and artifice is blended with the anti-electric, the snares of branches and twigs whose forms are an imperfect symmetry to the vine-like character of the classic logo. Better yet, the luminous branches suddenly appear voltaic, small charges of electricity emitting from the weathered insignia.

I’ve seen a photo of Britten in front of the stark ridges and snow-capped granite peaks. It was taken in Central Afghanistan (though it reminded me of parts of the Eastern Cascades in Washington State I grew up seeing). He’s standing in full combat gear with his gun on its base and tripod and an array of heavy rounds on the ground. We talked for awhile about his experiences, about landscapes and about precision. As a civilian, his heightened awareness of space, environment, and conditions has become an essential part of his creativity.

Britten favors the Nikon FE for most of his work, and most often uses a Nikkor 50/1.4.

Images: 1. "Untitled 1", Gelatin-silver print, 2011; 2. "Untitled", Gelatin-silver print, 2011;  3. "Untitled", Gelatin-silver print, 2011; 4. "Rocky Waters", Gelatin-silver print, 2011;

projects / pictures' new format.

Since its inception, this blog has been presented as a "photostream" (a la flickr), a sequence of usually single-image posts wherein I choose an exemplary recent photograph from a student and post it with minimal peripheral information. This format was chosen in part to isolate the images from the parameters set for a particular assignment, opening up the images to new possibilities of interpretation by creating a gallery-like environment. The encounter is thus with the image alone, on its own terms (itself a dubious assertion).

These de-contextualized images are always compelling in their own right, demanding no explanation to justify their presence. On reflection, this format has its own set of implicit biases, first and foremost privileging the image-object of the person who authored it. It also seems to suggest that early student work is not consistent enough to merit a more thorough presentation, and that the assignments I create are subterfuge, an elaborate game designed to produce stand-alone images and art works (this is only partly true!). However, on reflection, students in art and photography begin carving out a niche, and an individual approach simultaneously while still learning even the basics of the process, and more advanced students invest a lot of artistry and critical thinking in producing a consistent and compelling body of work within a given assignment, and even over multiple projects.

The new format will address these issues and latent strengths. Posts to this site will now be focused on a more generous, in-depth look at a student's work, showcasing multiple images whether from a single series or from across multiple projects. For each artist, I will also include a short review discussing the form, style and content, and include more relevant information provided by the artist.

Additionally, I will periodically post the original assignment outlines, so that readers can refer back to the themes and parameters to which a student was responding. There will be vestiges of projects/pictures original format, but I'm certain this new approach will be more amenable to all, and present a clearer sense for the artistry and learning taking place around me on a weekly basis.

x
Joel

Danielle Young

"Secured" 2011

Gelatin-silver print

Nick Lavin 

"When the Sun Met the Moon" 2011

Gelatin-silver print

Brin LaFleur 

"Untitled", 2011

Gelatin-silver print

Continuing on from last Spring, I discovered the location for the old glass neg we found in the Photo Labs at ECC. It wasn't Main St, it was one block over, on Michigan. Here's a recreation of the photo using the location as it stands now. This was taken on a Voigtlander Vitessa with a 45mm Zeiss Tessar on TMax 100 (neg scanned on an Epson V750).

And here's a closeup of the same section of the image as the original. The glass neg is definitely sharper owing a lot to its giant size. The TMax 100 with the Zeiss lens is pretty impressive though, a testament mostly to improvements in film and continuing superiority of Zeiss lenses.

Meghan Smith

Digital photograph, 2009

Lauren Palmieri 

"Untitled (after Harry Callahan)" 2011 

Digital c-print

Christopher Jackson 

"Untitled" 2011 

Gelatin-silver print

Alicia Bukowski

"Untitled" 2011

Gelatin-silver print

Nicole Ciaccia

"Unitled (after Bruce Nauman)", 2011

Digital C-print

Kelly Pass

Untitled, 2010

digital image

Photographer unknown, printed by Morgan Makowski

"Untitled (Main Street at Ferry)"

Gelatin-silver contact print

(click for hi-res image)

I found this glass negative in the photography storage closet at ECC South. It measures about 6.5" x 8.5". Though there is some distress to both base and emulsion, the image has remained relatively intact. This is a flatbed scan of our contact print, made on Ilford RC-DeLuxe with a #2 1/2 filter, the scan is unadjusted except for a minor unsharp mask and curves.

Here is Morgan holding the original negative near our light table.

Thanks to the resolving power of large-format negatives, we were able to use our loupe to read the only street sign visible in the frame. It very clearly read "E. FERRY ST." I assume the mural is no longer there, but maybe I'll luck out.

Based on the presence of the streetcar and my memory of the building facades, I'm pretty sure this is looking south on Main Street at the intersection dividing West and East Ferry. Next step...