Category: Alternative Process

Cyanotype on Bioplastic

Have been experimenting with cyanotype on bioplastic. The bioplastic is made of agar agar, cornstarch and water. I am mixing the cyanotype emulsion directly into the bioplastic and coating glass sheets. In the following examples, the yellow tint is from insufficient washing because the emulsion was thick in that area. A longer wash combined with better coating technique seems to have solved the problem.

Cyanotype on bioplastic
Cyanotype on bioplastic
Cyanotype on bioplastic

Aqua Oculus

I first became interested in how elements of the environment could participate in the image making process during the “Beneath” project. For “Beneath” I was using a modified film development tank as a pinhole camera. As I was filling the tank with water in order to make the photograph, I realized that the water became an active component in the image making process.

I was interested in seeing how the water collected from the environment where the image was being made, could contribute to the final image. The clarity and quality of the water all had an effect on the final image.

I constructed the camera around a 4×5 film holder and a salvaged shutter from a discarded Nettar camera. I created a compartment in the front of the camera to hold a plastic sphere that I could fill with water. I filled the sphere with water that I collected on location, placed it in the compartment and taped it shut to make it light tight. The light entered through the shutter and the water filled sphere became the lens to form the image.

I made the exposures onto photo paper that I had loaded into the film holder. Most of the images had exposure times of 1/25 of a second.

Aqua Oculus Camera
Water collected to form the lens
The lens chamber
Bow River
Bow River – Elbow River confluence
Fish Creek
Kananakis River
Nose Creek
Nose Creek Bow River Confluence
Sylvan Lake
Weasel Head
West Nose Creek

Soil Chromatography

Back in June, I took a Soil Chromatography workshop hosted by the Land Art Collective and lead by Hannah Fletcher. Soil chromatography is a photographic process. Finely ground soil is absorbed by filter paper that has been prepared with a weak silver nitrate solution, and thanks to capillary action and exposure to light , a ‘picture’ of that soil appears.

Eco Printing

I have been experimenting with eco printing the last few weeks. In eco printing , plants are placed between sheets of watercolor paper, stacked and bound in layers and then simmered in hot water to extract the pigments and produce a print made with the plant dyes. Not all leaves produce good prints and I have had good success with oak, willow and rose leaves.