Loving Blue Making cyanotypes
One Saturday morning a group of students joined TASIS photography teacher Frank Long and spent a few hours mixing modern digital technology with a 19th century photographic process of making a cyanotype. In 1842 Sir John Herschal discover the cyanotype process. It is a photographic print made with a process based on the photosensitivity of certain iron compounds. The resulting image is blue (or cyan). This process is quite easy and quick was also often used to reproduce architectural and engineering drawings (blueprints).
For the TASIS students the first step in the process is to produce a transparency with a digital file and print on an ink jet or laser printer. This transparency is placed into a contact press with a sheet of paper which has been brushed with a solution containing ammonium ferric citrate and potassium ferricyanide. This transparency and paper are then exposed under ultraviolet light for a short amount of time. Colored iron compounds are formed when this exposure to light occurs.
Then the paper is washed under running water for about two minutes, followed by a gentle bath in a weak hydrogen peroxide/water solution. This final step intensifies the Prussian blue.
This past year TASIS photography department has enjoyed using new technology and mixed it up with old technology. As the School year winds down, students reflected that it was a lot of fun to step away from the computer and work with these older techniques. Guess what! Next year we place on doing even more work in the darkroom!
