Cyanotype, Macro, and Black and White?

From button-down jackets to fine dresses, noir has been the statement of elegant people, professionalism, and more. Many, many years went by before photography had any other color than cyan.

Macro Photograph of a Cyanotype in the Darkroom; 2022

Macro Photograph of a Cyanotype in the Darkroom; 2022

Cyanotype:

What is it?

Cyanotype was developed in the early days of creating a successful light-sensitive paper. The chemicals, though, because of the iron create a bluish almost green, cyan hue.

Anna Atkins is a genius to me. I am intrigued by the conceptual design of pressed flowers, plants, and objects to create a cyanotype image.

I like to work in depth with my fine-art side of work, but also continue to practice the product work - clean "straight photography". In contemplating this, and what my art needs to say, - the why and the how- I discovered a scientific part of my work.

Macro Photography (To be continued.)

I love macro photography, even with my phone so I decided to create macro images, and fine art with a concentration on product features, textures, and so forth. The images that I take, and composite really can be used in future products or for clients - it's an all-in-one method. So, what does that mean for art for art's sake? The method itself is the discovery and study of subject matter.  This is my science, my complexity to use photography to get in close and see what my process and products are like. In measuring this with fine art and the abstract I found that using the cyanotype method to create imperfections and a backdrop for the images was successful, but not the only way. I also use Photoshop to create my interpretations/abstracts and composites.

Halonnah Hope Kay 2022

After many attempts to create a chemical-based, light-sensitive paper, with the right chemicals, the negative, small, and inside the camera aided the discovery of the modern camera. There was still one dilemma, the correct way to develop light-sensitive paper. After these chemicals were exactly right the photographer could photograph anything in Black and White. Color would come much later.

Photographers like Ansel Adams and many others used photography as a job as researchers of land and surveyors of territories for the governments.

After many revealed their images, their aesthetic properties, and with raw awe, people were taken by these images and began to look at this way of life as fine art. The documentaries turned into aesthetic appreciation and photographers began to photograph whenever they could for fun, for representational beauty. What they could show others was unique and priceless.

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