Spinach Anthotypes!

 You might remember my blog post about making an anthotype (a plant-based print) using beet juice and watercolor paper. But beet juice isn't the only plant material that can be used for making photographic prints: liquid extracted from of a number of leaves, flowers, and roots will work.

For my second round of anthotypes, I chose spinach. A handful of fresh spinach leaves yielded just the right amount of liquid, which I painted onto watercolor paper and exposed to the sun with a positive image on a plastic transparency placed over it.

The sun acted much more quickly on the spinach than the beet juice, and within just a few hours, these prints were done. Voila!

Sheet Music

I've been experimenting with making prints on different materials: watercolor paper, canvas, glass... and now sheet music.

For this particular print, I painted a light-sensitive liquid onto the paper and made a contact print in a darkroom. It involved a large digital negative (although the original image was taken on 35mm film), one pop of a flash, the sloshing of different chemicals in a barely-lit room, and lots of suspense. I've learned a lot by trial and error — and I love how the process makes me feel a bit like an alchemist.

Harmony

Impossibly Roman Cyanotypes

A few months ago, I had the good fortune of visiting the Eternal City with a Polaroid camera (loaded with Impossible Project film) in tow. Rome is a city near and dear to my heart, and it was a thrill to revisit some of my favorite hidden corners, as well as the city's iconic monuments. The difference was that this time I could capture them in a whole new way, with a Polaroid camera. I enjoyed taking the original images (See Rome, Instantly), as well as the process of printing them as cyanotypes on watercolor paper.

Same Eternal City, but a whole new way of falling in love with it!

The Spanish Steps and the church of the Santissima Trinità dei Monti

 The Flavian Amphitheater, a.k.a. the Colosseum

 

The view from the top of the Spanish Steps

 

Trajan's Forum, with Palazzo Venezia, the church of Santa Maria di Loreto, and Trajan's Column in the background

 My beloved Piazza del Popolo

Rome

One of my favorite places in Rome is Piazza del Popolo. A vast open space, paved with cobblestones and bordered by an ancient city gate, three churches, numerous sculptures and fountains, and a monumental park descending from the Pincian Hill, it's part outdoor living room and part outdoor museum. And of course it's also a living, breathing Roman square, with scooters, taxis, buses, and cars zipping around its edges. 

The near-twin churches of Santa Maria in Montesanto and Santa Maria dei Miracoli hold particular charm for me... I can't seem to photograph them enough!

Cyanotype on watercolor paper, toned in coffee.

Original image taken with a Polaroid and Impossible Project PX600 film. 

Coffee

Cyanotypes are known for their luminous shades of Prussian blue. But as beautiful as that shade of blue is, what if it's not the right color for a certain subject or mood? Well, cyanotypes are wonderfully versatile, and it turns out that the colors can be altered by toning the print in different liquids. Some of these are specially formulated chemicals, while others are common liquids found around the house.

Would you believe that one of these is coffee? 

  

After creating original blue-and-white cyanotypes, I then let them soak in a tray of fresh, warm coffee for well over an hour.  

 

When the prints came out of the tray, the blue had morphed into a dark gray, while the cream-colored paper had turned a lovely shade of caramel. Who knew how useful coffee would be for my photography?

Cyanotypes

 What do you get when you paint a sheet of watercolor paper with a special photosensitive liquid, then expose it to sunlight with a negative pressed over it? 

Well, it depends. 

I suppose there are any number of possible outcomes. But if you use a certain combination of chemicals, expose the paper to the sun for the correct amount of time, and wash the print in water, then, with a little luck, you'll end up with a cyanotype -- a beautiful, unique, blue-and-white print.

I've been studying and practicing this historic method of printmaking, which was invented by Sir John Herschel in 1842... and enjoying every moment.

There are different ways to tone cyanotypes to alter the blue coloring, and there are plenty of other alternative print methods to explore. But for the moment, I'm enjoying the pure Prussian blue of the cyanotype. From choosing a subject and composing the shot down to the final blue image fixed on watercolor paper, printmaking has added a whole new (and fantastically fun) aspect to my photography.

I love it.