“A process by which the sun’s own light is used to inscribe its shadows upon paper,
creating celestial blue prints that reveal the hidden forms of nature’s dance.”
-Sir John Herschel,
Inventor of the cyanotype process
Cyanotype
SUN-KISSED SHADOWS PAINTED PRUSSIAN BLUE
The cyanotype process involves coating paper with a light-sensitive solution, exposing it to sunlight under objects or negatives, and then washing it in water. This creates a striking blue-and-white image where exposed areas turn a deep cyan, revealing detailed and unique prints.
It's also a way to remind myself what a photograph actually is. It is the memory of a photon's influence imprinted on a medium. Recently that medium has been limited to digital 1's and 0's on a memory card, but it used to be a physical object. Cyanotype prints remind me that photography is a physical representation of light interacting with the physical world.
