Research: Cyanotypes & Photograms

I knew I'd end up spinning off in multiple directions! Some time ago I was talking to my other half about ways of capturing images without using a camera or having to faff about with a darkroom. At the time he suggested light sensitive paper, which I'd never heard of, but thought it would be great for a shrimp skin I have lying about (that sounds weird... it's not really lying about - I have shrimp in my fish tank and they shed pretty frequently!) I used my photocopier to capture this one...

Anyway, I digress, have now had a look for it, found it to be relatively inexpensive (£4.99 for 10 A5 sheets) so purchased a couple of packs to have a play with. The proper term for sun printing is 'cyanotype' I found a really good blog about the process by confessions of a design geek along with links to an exhibition, Shadow Catchers, that was held at the V&A. This has led me to look at the work of Anna Atkins and several other camera-less photography artists. The umbrella term for images 'made directly onto photographic paper through casting shadows, manipulating light, or chemically treating the surface of the paper' is 'photograms'. Have pasted my favourites below.

Arch (2007/08) by Susan Derges blends photograms of plants and scans of ink falling through water.



Christening Dress from My Ghosts (1997) by Adam Fuss




Anna Atkins Algae Cyanotype


Lastly there's a really good link here describing the cyanotype process.

Research: Polaroid

Need to use half-term constructively and start cracking on with alternative images for this fantasy landscape project. Won a Polaroid camera on ebay this afternoon, £20 with unused film, not a bad price considering 600 film costs about £20 anyway. Have been merrily googling for creative ways to use this format. Fun little video here which shows one, albeit somewhat limited, use.

these use the new Impossible Project film which I love...





This one, I assume, is shot through glass... not sure whether the wiggly lines were added after or not...

Development: Quick update

Still playing - but conscious I should be making more concrete decisions now. Spent yesterday afternoon taking some more photocopies of flowers - had a single rose in the garden and it was rather lovely so wanted to capture it... of course I then left it on the scanner bed and completely forgot about it so not quite so lovely this morning! Wanted to situate the feet in some way so took a shot of my bath from above. Slightly tricky as my balance is terrible and the process required a steady hand. Have also been thinking of a way of tying these ideas together in order to give the whole thing a sense of purpose... Have found a poem by Edgar Allan Poe which I think might suffice...

It was many and many a year ago,

In a kingdom by the sea,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

By the name of Annabel Lee;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought

Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,

In this kingdom by the sea;

But we loved with a love that was more than love-

I and my Annabel Lee;

With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven

Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,

In this kingdom by the sea,

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling

My beautiful Annabel Lee;

So that her highborn kinsman came

And bore her away from me,

To shut her up in a sepulchre

In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,

Went envying her and me-

Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,

In this kingdom by the sea)

That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love

Of those who were older than we-

Of many far wiser than we-

And neither the angels in heaven above,

Nor the demons down under the sea,

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,

In the sepulchre there by the sea,

In her tomb by the sounding sea.

the sea is the bath water, the bath the tomb, the maiden - feet, love symbolised by the rose, will scoop some feathers off the lawn for the angels (our cat is ever obliging) clouds, stars etc still to decide. Wanted to incorporate text in some way so this seems an ideal way to do it - just need to decide upon the how. Anyway this is where I am ... the shadows are still troubling me and need to fine tune where the water meets the bath... work in progress I guess - watch me abandon it last minute and do something completely different!

Experimentation: More Layering

Having a quiet weekend, other half working, so I've carried on fiddling! Started with the basic blurry feet shot and added a watery layer. This is way more subtle than yesterdays efforts, I felt it needed to be less busy if I wanted to add flowers to it. Unfortunately the images I took yesterday don't really work but posting this anyway as it's a work in progress and demonstrates the problems I'm having quite nicely! I took the flower shots with flash ( feet were taken using natural light) and the colours are just too brash - didn't desaturate well either. I didn't bother finishing as I knew I'd have to re-shoot the flowers. Was quite happy with the effect of the shadows: used the lasso tool to cut out and tweaked using 'refine edge' in order to create a nice blurry shadow that wouldn't require too much tweaking when pasted. Touched up any rogue areas with the eraser tool, changing opacity where necessary. I then changed the refine edge settings on the flower to give me a crisper edge and added as a new layer. Decided I would need to re-shoot the flowers using deeper water (theory being the feet are under water so I need more depth for accurate shadows) but then found with the water deeper the shadows are miles away and don't have quite the same nice effect! Realism/artistic license dilemma beckons! Shall have a play and see what happens...

Experimentation: Playing with Layers

Really like images that are quite distorted, blurry and out of focus... remind me why I'm bothering to do a photography course! Took this one the other day - not particularly complicated just feet ceilingwards and snap at a slow shutter speed whilst moving... rather liked the effect though and thought I would have a play with it. Used the TTV image I took in Perry Wood the other week and just added it as a new layer. Desaturated and tweaked to achieve subtle detail. Never one to leave anything alone I then decided to add water (that would be the Hockney swimming pool influence!) Took another shot of my feet in water and applied this as a new layer... bit of a faff as was difficult to achieve the level of detail I wanted in the water without completely losing the detail in the feet... also lightenend it up a bit as the final result seemed a little dark. Was initially planning to add my copier flowers (have bunged these on flickr - link to the right of this post) and also took images of the flowers in water to check shadows but seemed a bit busy so discarded... may well revisit this later!

College Session: Out and About 10th May

Finally broke free of the studio and had a wander around Pitchcroft... looking for inspiration! Bit of a slow start but fortunately had a prop and my TTV kit with me so started with this...

like it as it is really so no plans to tweak at all. Spent the rest of the time snapping elements of the landscape that I could see myself recycling...



The drainpipe was three seperate photos that I stitched together in photoshop. I think I could use this with some of the tree images I snapped in Perry Wood. I already have a window that I was planning to paste in in order to create something along the lines of Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree.

The window just screamed Hockney'esque' swimming pool. I quite like the idea of rotating it landscape and cloning the brickwork to create a clean tiled effect.

The path also has potential, I have a nice HDR image of Perry Wood that this would work with.

Lots of ideas but still unwilling to commit!

Artist Study: Show me the Monet

In order to meet certain criteria for this course we are expected to look at other artists and try and work out the processes/techniques used to produce their work... well this evening I watched the first episode in a new series 'Show me the Monet' and saw a picture that I loved, and definitely has photographic elements, but am completely stumped as to how she did it! On the plus side the 'experts' were similarly stumped! I can see how a similar effect could be achieved by using layers in photoshop but this lady is a fine artist so I'm pretty sure photoshop isn't involved. It's rather difficult to see the detail in the screen grab but if anyone has any ideas then throw them my way! You can watch the programme on bbc iplayer here and see more of her work here.

Experimentation: TTV photography

Had the afternoon off so decided to skip the evening session at college and take some photos out in the real world. The last project was very studio centered so really want to get out and about for this one. I'd dabbled in TTV (Through the Viewfinder ) photography some time ago - but didn't really get much further than purchasing an appropriate vintage camera and constructing a device to hold it in. Because the brief for this assignment requires us to experiment I thought it an ideal opportunity to pick it up again. Didn't have a lot of time as I knew if I wandered too far I'd lose the light so kept local and had a wander up to Perry Wood (note to self: let Hannah know it's full of bikers doing stunts!). Had a few issues, the method is a little clunky and if the whole contraption isn't kept completely square you end up with shadows across the lens... added to this the original contraption was tailor made for a different camera so the focusing distance was slightly off and I did have a few issues with light leaking in. On the whole not unhappy with the results though. You kind of expect a slightly soft focus (see links to people far better than I!) and the imperfections are all part of the charm - at least I think so!

Links for more info
Sharon Rose
TTV Pete
Summersound Photography
Flickr TTV Photography group