Kids, Art and Old Technology

When I was a kid, my father set up a temporary darkroom for us in an extra bathroom.
As I watched my first photographic images become visible in the developer I was mesmerized.  I thought it was magic. Children these days have much easier access to taking and manipulating images with digital cameras and cell phones. However, nothing quite compares to the excitement and magic of the dark room and working with film.

My cyanotype #2.  It's a branch from the  ginko maple tree...

Old photographic technologies have a place today. The Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College offered a family workshop recently, "Sun Prints" for making cards for Valentine's Day.  The workshop was organized by Mac Cosgrove-Davies as part of the Maier's Love at the Maier holiday celebration.  It was also in conjunction with their current exhibition, Modern Movement: Arthur B. Davies Figurative Works on Paper from the Randolph College and Mac Cosgrove-Davies Collections.  

Mac explaining the process of making cyanotypes while my prints are being exposed.
photo Lisa Cosgrove-Davies

Mac is Arthur B. Davies' great-grandson and an artist, photographer and woodworker himself.  So it was a natural fit for him to offer a program about sun prints, or cyanotypes for the Maier community.  One of his cyanotypes is included in the exhibition. This is a wonderful way to introduce children to the chemistry of photography and the concept of photo sensitivity in a very accessible activity. I am particularly attracted to the color blue or Prussian blue that is associated with cyanotypes. They are frequently associated with botanical imagery which is another reason I am attracted to the genre. 

When I met Mac I told him I was considering doing a similar workshop at the Daura Gallery at Lynchburg College. Mac was very helpful in explaining this process.  I was excited to jump in and make my own prints. The process is relatively straight forward and very similar to the photo silk screens I had made years ago. Equal amounts of potassium ferricyanide and ferric ammonium citrate are mixed together. This photosensitive solution is brushed on paper and left to dry in a dark place.  Mac did this before the workshop. 

The prints are assembled in the Maier storage room.
photo Lisa Cosgrove-Davies

He arrived with a lovely selection of dried leaves and flowers that were arranged on a table for easy selection.  Another table was set up with wooden frames, glass inserts and clamps to hold the specimen down during exposure. A piece of the paper that had the photosensitive emulsion was placed on the back of the frame, a plant or other objects were placed on the paper and carefully clamped into the frame. The frames were then taken outside to be exposed to sun light.  Those areas of the paper that are covered by the plants keep that paper from being exposed to the UV light. After exposure, in my case about 20 minutes, the print is put in a solution to be developed and then washed is a running water bath. The uncovered or exposed areas of the paper experience a chemical reaction which results in a vivid blue reversed image. You don't get the fully saturated color until the print has dried.

Prints drying outside the Maier Museum.
photo Lisa Cosgrove-Davies

This process was discovered by English scientist and astronomer Sir John Herschel in 1842. It was his friend Anna Atkins who incorporated this procedure with photography and is considered to be the first female photographer. She make a series of cyanotype books and documented ferns and her seaweed collection. I find her work very inspiring.  

Anna Atkins from her 1843 book, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions
Courtesy of the New York City Public Library

As I mentioned Mac Cosgrove-Davies is a photographer and he was kind enough to share some of his own work with the participants of the workshop.  Here are a few samples.

Mac Cosgrove-Davies, Three Knives and a Pear

Mac Cosgrove-Davies, Rwandan Children

In researching this old photographic process, I discovered that there is another similar process called anthotype, using fruit and vegetable juices that are made into dyes and coated on paper.  What kind of old photographic techniques have you used?