I chose this image I took on a trip to Hampton Farm Museum for my analysis as I think that it is a good example of a portrait. I captured one of the actors at the farm straight on while she was preparing yarn for the spinning wheel and telling us the history of the trade. It was a good use of natural lighting as she was set up in the corner of a courtyard in the shade so only a few beams of light came through visible in the image which creates a nice contrast between light and dark. The colours in this image are pretty bland and feature mainly greys, browns and a small amount of green and blue. I didn’t feel like I needed to edit the photo so I levelled the colours and left it as it is.
Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. Engineers used the process well into the 20th century as a simple and low-cost process to produce copies of drawings, referred to as blueprints. The process uses two chemicals: ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide.
Cyanotypes in photography
Cyanotype photographs can be made in two ways: by using a photo negative, or by placing an object directly on the paper that is being exposed to the sun. Wherever the object blocks out the light the paper will remain white, and wherever the light hits around that object will react and turn blue.
The cyanotype process reverses light and dark, so a negative original is required to print as a positive image. Large format photographic negatives or transparent digital negatives can produce images with a full tonal range, or lithographic film can be used to create high-contrast images.
Cyanotypes in science
The cyanotype is an alternative photographic process that relies on the chemical properties of two iron compounds – ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide. Basically, formulas of these two iron compounds are mixed together in a 1:1 ratio to form a citrine coloured solution.
This is an example of the use of Cyanotypes in art produced by Rachel E. Church.
Anna Atkins
Anna Atkins was an English botanist and photographer. She is often considered the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographic images. Some sources say that she was the first woman to create a photograph. Her nineteenth century cyanotypes used light exposure and a simple chemical process to create impressively detailed blueprints of botanical specimens.
This is a photo of Anna Atkins who was born in 1799.
This is one of many Anna Atkins cyanotype pieces that she created in the 1840s.
Sir John Herschel, a friend of Atkins, invented the cyanotype photographic process in 1842. Within a year, Atkins applied the process to algae (specifically, seaweed) by making cyanotype photograms that were contact printed by placing the unmounted dried-algae original directly on the cyanotype paper.
Henry Peter Bosse
Henry Peter Bosse is an German-American photographer, cartographer and a civil engineer who was born on November 13 1844. Henrys cyanotypes surfaced at a Sotheby’s auction in 1990, his cyanotype photographs have been included in the permanent collections at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. His cyanotypes were exposed with large glass plates and printed on the finest French cyanotype paper, each sheet off-white measuring 14.5″ x 17.2″ and bearing the watermark “Johannot et Cie. Annonay, aloe’s satin.”
This is one of Henrys early pieces of work which shows the watermark he regularly used on most pieces of his work.
After the first photograph was taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826, photographs have been used to capture moments in time/history.
Iconic Photos
As photography evolved so did photography. The history of the camera began even before the introduction of photography. Cameras evolved from the camera obscura through many generations of photographic technology – daguerreotypes, calotypes, dry plates, film – to the modern day with digital cameras and camera phones.
Juxtaposition is an act or instance of placing two elements close together or side by side, they can contrast either through visual elements or through different meanings. This is often done in order to compare/contrast the two, to show similarities or differences, etc. The definition of juxtaposition is placing two things together to show contrast or similarities. In photography, we use composition, forced perspectives or props to convey the contrasts in the picture. Photographs can also rely on cultural ideas and identities of the viewers.
My Juxtaposition
I chose these images as I think they truly represent juxtaposition as they show one place at two different times creating the contrast between new and old.
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