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Cyanotypes - Process

LIFE IN BLUE !

Aloé vera flower

C. Casas - 2024

Cyanotype is an ancient photographic process discovered in the 19th century by British chemist John Herschel. The process uses a mixture of potassium ferricyanide and ammoniacal iron citrate which, when exposed to UV light, produces an insoluble blue pigment (also known as Prussian blue). When washed with water, this pigment precipitates and attaches itself to the paper.

It was Anna Atkins, a British botanist of the same period, looking for a method to illustrate her herbariums, who took an interest in this discovery and brought it to light.

In 1943, she published British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, a 12-part work illustrated with cyanotypes produced by exposing sheets of sensitive paper on which she had placed dried algae. Twelve known copies remain, all of great beauty and carefully preserved in museums and libraries such as the New York Public Library.

Dictyota dichotoma

A. Atkins - 1943

Whether staging plants, collaging photos or creating “hybrid” cyanotypes, my creations are always unique.

They are the fruit of my view of the world, of the sun's generosity and of some post-processing I allow myself.

These blue prints on different supports (watercolor paper, Japanese paper or others) also allow me to combine my paper or clay models with plant elements and/or photos, and to see the whole as a new creation.

Cyanotypes give us the opportunity to look at Life in Blue and to be surprised by this new way of seeing!