One of the things that first drew me to photography was the ability to create something unique, original, and artistic. Late nights in the dark room with hands wet with chemicals was a big part of what it was all about in my early days. Don't get me wrong, digital is a great tool, but a big part of me still yearns for those sleepless nights. In the spirit of getting my hands into some chemicals again I decided to embark on a mission this year - to create fine art using film, hand mixed chemicals, and unique papers/mediums.
With that goal in mind I selected Cyanotype printing as my focus because it is truly a hand-made process. From mixing chemicals to coating my own paper, my hands are all over each print from start to finish.
The artist in me was too excited to wait for the first 4x5 negatives of the year to come back from the lab so I dug up a few medium format negatives to test Cyanotype printing with. All the images were created with my beloved old Yashica Mat-124G.
This camera creates a unique square negative which I absolutely love! It forces you to look at the world in a wildly different way than 35mm (or today's digital). The Yashica also creates negatives over twice the size of a 35mm negative which makes it great for many alternative processes that involve contact printing, like cyanotypes.
As a portrait artist and a man in love, all the negatives I found were of my lovely fiance! With some great images to work with (and wonderful memories to dig though!) I couldn't wait to get printing!
“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
Negs dusted off, darkroom set up, and we are all ready to go! The first print (left) was a huge learning experience. I had a little trouble keeping the negative flat to the paper while printing and attempted to use thumb tacks to give me a hand, but it only had mixed success and left light areas in the corners of the print.
So, the first print was a bit of a learning experience, but that's what life is about! After a few refinements in my method I was able to finally get the hang of it and a perfect image in beautiful blue appeared. Can't wait to print more!
