Experimental Photography: Cyanotype Photogram

Video Transcript

"Process I'm going to talk about right now is called the cyanotype, or some people call them sun prints. Basically, quickly, this process is, this blue that you see, is light, sensitive material that I put in a liquid form that I made from powder, that I coated onto paper, and I let dry. Again, very important to let the paper dry. This particular image, I just picked up some flowers off the ground and laid them on top of the paper, put a piece of glass on top of it,and laid them out in the sun for approximately 15-20 minutes. After those 15-20 minutes are up, take my paper, take the flowers off the paper, and I just put it in water. After it's been in the water for about 30 seconds, I take it out of the water and I pour hydrogen peroxide on this paper. The hydrogen peroxide oxidizes the paper and it turns blue like this. Now this is called a photogram in a way. I didn't have to have a negative, I didn't use anything but the flowers I picked up off the ground. So it's a very raw, base way of making something photographic. And this is called a cyanotype."