Alternative Photographic Processes

Photography is something that I have always been interested in, probably stemming from the time as a child that my Granny would get out an old handbag and show me photographs of relatives from the late 1800’s, through to her parents, herself and her siblings and then more recent images. I love the sheen you get on very old photographs and the fact that some are printed onto thick card with name and address of the photographer on the back, and in some cases they are ‘engraved’ with the marks that come from a ‘life lived’.

Having previously enjoyed the process of developing, printing and enhancing black and white photographs I became fascinated with alternative photographic processes while working on my degree. Although I did not have time to pursue this at that time, I was intrigued by the possibility of creating images without the need for a camera and it was at the end of 2019 that I was able to take part in a one day workshop on cyanotypes at the Inverness Dark Room.

Since learning the basics I have been taking part in an online ‘Experimental Cyanotypes’ workshop tutored by Natalie Day, and am now attempting to experiment further, developing my own ideas in an effort to see how far the cyanotype process can be pushed, by how much and in what way.