The Cyanotype process was discovered in 1842 by Sir John Herschel, an English inventor. Herschel’s process leaves us with a white print on a blue background made by items found in nature. Cyanotypes work on a variety of surfaces but, being a textile artist, I use natural fibre fabrics, usually silk or cotton but also linen, hemp, rayon and silk/viscose velvet sometimes.
Cyanotypes as an art form
Anna Atkins, a botanical artist from Tonbridge made history with her cyanotypes as some say her cyanotypes created the first ever book to hold photographs, it has also been said that she was the first female photographer.
Atkins used a mix of exposure and chemicals to create her masterpieces which were mainly prints of flowers, plants from both land and sea. Anna Atkins images merged science and art, it also progressed the use of photographs in books.
My Cyanotype
For my cyanotype I collected plants, feathers and leaves from around Hamptonne. I enjoyed making these and found them very interesting as you can create anything you think of.
Photography began in the late 1830s in France. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used a portable camera to expose a pewter plate coated with bitumen to light. This is the first recorded image that did not fade quickly.
Although the first camera wasn’t created until the 19th century, the concept of photography has been around since about the 5th century B.C. It wasn’t until an Iraqi scientist developed something called the camera obscura in the 11th century that the art was born. The camera obscura consisted of a tent with a pinhole which projected images onto the surface of the tent, upside down, they could be traced to create accurate drawings of real objects such as buildings.
Niépce’s success led to a number of other experiments and photography progressed rapidly. Three different techniques were quickly created known as, Daguerreotypes, Emulsion Plates and Dry Plates.
A daguerreotype consisted of a copper plate being exposed to iodine vapour, and then exposed to light for roughly 15 minutes. This was a very popular method until 1850 when it was replaced with emulsion plates. Emulsion plates, were less expensive than daguerreotypes and required only two or three seconds of exposure time. This made them more efficient for portrait photographs, which were the most common photographs in this time period.
Photography was only for professionals and the rich until George Eastman started a company called Kodak in the 1880s. They created an affordable portable camera in 1888 known as the Brownie, the creation of this camera made photography very popular around the world as it was now affordable for the average person, and very easy to use.
In the 1980s and 90s companies such as kodak started creating cameras that held photos digitally compared to film, this started what photography is today.
The first photograph ever taken (1827)First photo of Earth 1966
Comparing these two images you can see that photography has clearly come along way, just 139 years after the first photograph was taken, we managed to take a picture of Earth.
This is a representation of photography from 1021 through to the 21st century showing how much photography has evolved throughout all the years.
Photography, as we know it today, began in the late 1830s in France. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used a portable camera obscura to expose a pewter plate coated with bitumen to light. This is the first recorded image that did not fade quickly.
This is the first ever photo taken that survivedin 1826.
Niépce called his process heliography, from the Greek helios meaning ‘drawing with the sun’. In 1826, using this process, Niépce took the earliest surviving ‘photograph’. The photo was taken from his window in his house in Chalons-sur-Saône which required an exposure of about 8 hours.
What was photography first used for?
At first, photography was either used as an aid in the work of an painter or followed the same principles the painters followed. The first publicly recognized portraits were usually portraits of one person, or family portraits.
Photography in WW2
Wartime photography became much more graphic in World War II. 37 print and photo journalists were killed in World War II, 112 were wounded, and 50 were taken prisoner. The casualty rate among wartime journalists was four times higher than among soldiers.
This photo was taken in 1945 and has gone down to be the most iconic picture taken during WW2.
Hamptonne Country Life Museum gives the visitor a unique insight into the rural life in jersey. There are different houses that make up Hamptonne, which give you an idea of how houses looked in different time periods. There is lots of old machinery like apple crushing machines, where they famously make Jersey black butter. There are many animals around hamptonne, such as pigs, cows, sheep, chickens and rabbits.
The hamptonne farm is named after laurens hamptonne, who bought the property in 1633. Hamptonne is also known as La Patente, (the name of one of the roads that passes it) , after the grants by letters patent received by its owner richard langois in 1445 and by king charles II to laurens Hamptonne in 1649.
those who has provided a particular service in the monarch or close relative were awared royal patents. Hamptonne was a vicomte or executive officer of jerseys royal court.It was in that role that Hamptonne issued the famous Proclamation in St Helier’s Royal Square on 17 February 1649, declaring Charles II as King after news reached the Island of the execution of Charles I.
The Hamptonne country life museum is a 15th century house and farm which gives visitors an insight into the rural life which was carried out in Jersey.
Things To Do On Your Visit:
You can explore the cider barn take a walk through the apple orchard meet the farm animals and take a walk inside the Syvert house which is a decorated and furnished farm house which gives visitors a 1940s feel of what life in jersey was like during the German occupation.
you also get the chance to meet characters from the past and learn about their jobs.
Location: located in the middle of the parish St Lawrence the Hamptonne is engulfed by the country side of jersey this location allows for a true feel of what it was like to be living in jersey in the 15th century. This also allows for a calm and relaxing environment whilst visiting the museum.
Tom Kennedy
A jersey based photographer and film maker who’s pictures are inspired by ‘painting with light’ through the inspiration of 17th century paintings.
the camera obscura was first mentioned by Mozi who was a Chinese philosopher during the 5th century bc. He was a scientist, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher. He wrote the book of optics.
Nicephore Niepce developed heliography which he used to make the oldest surviving product of a photographic process.
Louis Daguerre was the inventer of the Daguerreotype which was the first type of modern photography.
daguerreotypes was the first commercial succesful photgraphic process.
henry fox talbot created calotypes using a sheet of paper covered in silver chloride then exposed it to light in a camera obscura where the light touched became dark.
Richard Maddox is known for his invention of lightweight gelatin negative plates for photography.
George Eastman founded the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company. he sold the first camera the kodak in 1888 with only a 100 exposures.
Kodak (Brownie) sold for one dollar and sold 100,000 in the first year. the brownie helped start amateur photography.
the first film in a roll and flexible was made by george eastman in 1885.
in the 1950 modern digital photography. the first digital image that was produced through a computer by Russell Kirsch, it was a picture of his son.
This photo of a South Vietnam National Police Chief named Ngoc Loan executing a suspected Viet Cong member Nguyen Van Lem, on the second day of the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War. This photo was taken on February 1st, 1968 by a photographer named Eddie Adams.
In this image it presents a slight disturbing tone due to the photo having no colour and the fact the image was taken just before the execution of Nguyen Van Lem. The photo represents what Vietnam was like around 50 years ago and shows the effect of the Viet Cong on Vietnam.
The police chief named Ngoc Loan seems to show no emotion when pulling the trigger to the suspected Viet Cong member, however the Vietnamese soldier in the background of the image seems to show a face of distress like he’s trying to stop the police chief from killing the suspect.
here I am selecting the photos that I think are the best by using shift p to pick and shift x to not pick, I do this a couple times until I have limited myself down to my best and favourite images.once I have got down to 26 photos, I am now beginning to star rate my images, 5 stars being the best, and 1 star being the worst.once I have chosen my final images, I have colour coded them. Purple images are objects, the green images are portraits and the yellow images are the buildings and interiors.
Editing my final images
for this image, I was interested in the white lighting hitting her dress, and wanted to add a cool tone to the image.for this image, i was interested in the geometric lines that hit the shoes, a lowered the exposure so that these lines were sharper.for this image I was interested in the reds in the image, and the texture of the wheel, so i brighted the image and sharpened it so that these two features were highlighted
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