I haven’t posted in a while. Busy with preparing my mother’s house for sale and a bug that hung around too long in December. Then Christmas. The holiday did give me time to read and reflect however and in so doing I came across Alternative Photography.
I’d not been particularly looking for this topic as I’d was enjoying experimenting with portrait overlays and moving more into abstraction. But developing my own prints and perhaps looking at my existing catalogue of photos in a new way did excite me.
The beginning of the journey for anyone looking at alternative photography I guess is nearly always Cyanotypes. This is probably the easiest methodology and with the the right paper, acetate paper for negatives, some basic emulsion and a UV lamp you can start creating. Which is what I’ve done.
YouTube is of course a fantastic source of tutorials and in addition I bought Creative Cyanotype by Angela Chalmers. It turns out that Angela is based not far from me in Scarborough where she is artist in residence at St Martin’s Church. Famous for its Pre Raphaelite artwork – Angela has researched a great deal about the church benefactor, Mary Craven, and created several installations, including an amazing cyanotype dress which was on display when I visited shortly after Christmas.
Even though it is the simplest ‘starters technique’ I have found it quite a challenge! The variables are the paper type, the exposure time and probably the most difficult aspect – producing a digital negative.
Getting the right range of tones in a negative is not simply a question of inverting a black and white image. I watched and rewatched several videos on the methodology and it is beyond my technical ability/ patience so far. I will persevere however but up to now I have relied on guesswork and hoping. I’ve had a very mixed bag of results which is to be expected but I am enjoying the magic of seeing an image emerge as the water swirls around the paper.
Anyway here’s a small selection of what I’ve created so far:
The two sepia images were ‘toned’ with tea. I’m looking forward to creating different toners, especilly later on in the year, when flowers can become a colourful source. Also while the majority of my early experimentation have been portraits it’s going to be fun to look at some of my landscape shots, particularly moorland ones, as this has potential I think to create some lovely moody images.