Cyanotype

A cyanotype is a process that dates back to the 1830s, almost a 200 year old process. It was the first photographic process in the history of photography. The method went along as such: photographers would ‘paint’ a piece of paper with potassium ferricyanide and ferric ammonium citrate, then put a large negative on the surface of the paper. They would then leave it out in the sun for a period of time, where it is exposed to ultraviolet-A light rays. Over time, an image, sort of bluish, would appear on the paper. I had the privilege to make my own cyanotype using this process, however instead of leaving it out in the sun for hours, I put it in a UV light ray machine, which fed the cyanotype ultraviolet light. Just by doing this task amazed me, I didn’t realize how far our world has developed biochemically – I thought all the modern developments were due to discoveries made recently, but no, advanced chemistry began a long, long time ago.

I used an image I took last year, in my second semester of tenth grade. I remember being really proud of this image, because I love microphotography, especially of plants and flowers. 

We used modern process fused in with this ancient process. We scanned our prints into the computer, and printed them out on a piece of clear film (designed especially for our specific printer). My negative is shown below. 

After performing the whole cyanotype process as explained above, I ended up with this beautiful photo. You can see that there seems to be some brushes of blue coming out of the original image - this is because we had to 'paint' the chemicals on the paper before exposing the film and paper to UV light. The ending product is fantastic, and it's amazing to think that such an advanced process was developed so long ago. Being in photography has definitely enhanced my understanding of the art, and it also made me feel like I had connections to the past.  

If you want to learn more about cyanotypes, or are even thinking about making your own cyanotype at home, check out the following websites: 

http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/processes/cyanotype/cyanotype-classic-process

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cyanotypes---super-easy-photo-prints-at-home./