A bit of history

The British scientist Sir John Herschel discovered the cyanotype process in 1842.

The process remains the same today, producing a white image on a deep blue background.

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.

Anna Atkins

Born: March 16, 1799, Tonbridge, United Kingdom

Died: June 9, 1871, 

English botanical artist, collector and photographer Anna Atkins was the first person to illustrate a book with photographic images. Her nineteenth-century cyanotypes used light exposure and a simple chemical process to create impressively detailed blueprints of botanical specimens. 

Anna’s innovative use of new photographic technologies merged art and science, and exemplified the exceptional potential of photography in books.

Anna’s self-published her detailed and meticulous botanical images using the cyanotype photographic process in her 1843 book, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. With a limited number of copies, it was the first book ever to be printed and illustrated by photography.

You can view images from the book …

How to make Cyanotype Prints

Materials

• Pre-prepared cyanotype paper
• A piece of cardboard
• Acrylic or glass sheet
• Bulldog clips – or you can use masking tape or sellotape instead 
• An interesting range of objects to create your print from
• Alternatively, you can print out an image on clear transparency to create your blueprint from…

Tips

• You could source a piece of acrylic from a picture frame and even put it back afterwards!
• The cyanotype paper is light sensitive, so only take it out when you are ready to start using it, and protect the remaining sheets from light.
• When exposing your composition to light, watch the paper slowly change from blue to almost white. This should take around 3-5 minutes in full sun but longer if it is cloudy.
• Wash your print for at least one minute using gentle cold water.
• When it is dry leave your print under a pile of books overnight to flatten it out.

Task

1. Create a blog post that describes and explain the cyanotype as both a science and an art-form
2. Include visual examples
3. Include reference to Anna Atkins and other photographers who have experimented with cyanotypes
4. Include your cyanotype experiment (s)

Why do people take/make photographs?

Photos are a way of solidifying memories and personal experiences it also lets us relive and remember special events that have happened, birthdays, weddings, parties and family that are no longer here. Photography also allows us to share these memories with other people and share our experiences.

Why is photography important?

Photographs play an important role in everyone’s life, they help us keep memories and connect to our past. Photography is also a way to express ourselves and lets us see things that we would have never noticed. It also lets us see into other peoples minds and helps them conveys a message to the rest of the world, they have a positive influence on society by letting people express their emotions.

How many different kinds of photography can you think of?

There are many different types of photography that change in subject manner, equipment and technique. Some include landscape photography, wildlife photography, aerial photography, sports/action photography, portrait photography, architectural photography, wedding photography/event photography and fashion photography.

Can photographic images be trusted?

With all the editing software that allows us to modify and change anything we want in pictures, it has become increasingly more difficult to trust. Many people can now edit pictures to make them look like something that hasn’t actually happened which could have many effects on the world or peoples view of it. But photography can also show us the real issues in the world and without them, many of the issues would never be seen or talked about.

Photography’s Functions

In my opinion there are multiple functions/ uses of photography it can be used to capture memories and events in someone’s personal life, or on the other hand it can become very general and varied, such as pictures of natural events in the newspapers. Furthermore, it can be used to communicate everything that is occurring all around the world at one time, although photographs only capture one point in time and sometimes don’t show the whole story, pictures can communicate important issues such as climate change, mental health and the pandemic. Personally the main function of photography is to capture memories such as holidays around the world and growing up in my childhood home.

Photography as an art form

Photography can be viewed as a from of art and self expression as it can portray someone’s emotions through an image or a collection of images, people can manipulate their images to emphasise specific parts of the image. However, this makes images untrustworthy and misleading, for example when celebrities use photoshop to make their images look more aesthetically pleasing. Photography contrasts with other visual art forms as in my opinion its the most misleading, but can have the most influence other other opinions, mostly because a whole story sometimes cant be told through one photo. Photography as an art illustrates how the work is done by the photographer/ artist rather than jus the camera itself, this allows famous photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson to explain the thought process and development behind his images.

The study and practise of photography

One of my favourite thing about visual arts in general is the many ways in which it can be used in very serious situations such as finding out what a criminals face looks like on CCTV or illustrating how many children starve in third world countries. The practise of photography is very important as even though we might not know it we need it to show evidence of everything from school work, to the discoveries of new planets, as some of my favourite high resolution images are of earth from thousands of miles away. I think that the main benefit from the study of photography is how it can change your perspective on things, anything from the angles and the lighting to the way in which situations are viewed. For example, the famously controversial image that Kevin Carter taken had a serious message behind it, not telling the whole story, whereas if he had included the food bank in the background of his image then maybe it would not have bee as controversial in a negative way, this demonstrates how easily images can be manipulated.

Technical Elements

The lighting within this image is more underexposed, rich and dark towards the bottom of the image, but towards the top of the image the lighting is harsh and artificial. In the area of windows in the middle of the image, there is an area of high overexposure. The white balance is warm, and there is an orange tone to the image. This shot is shot in portrait, with a slightly blurry texture, and slightly fine grain. This means that the light sensitivity was higher, creating this grain.

Visual Elements

The tone in this image is rich and dark, however with high light points in the middle section of windows. The angle in which the photo is taken creates a triangle shape leading towards the background. This creates natural leading lines within the image, drawing the eye from the subject of the mage to the background of the factory. The doorway above the subject’s head creates a natural frame for this dramatic portrait. There is slight shadow on the subject’s face, but deep underexposure, and tones of black and orange on the middle of his face. The use of repeated rectangle and square shapes in the construction of the factory creates a sense of a uniformed and rigid environment, and creates an organised composition.

Contextual Elements

Alfred Krupp, the subject of this picture, was a factory boss in WWII. He was very controversial figure in post war Germany, due to his encouragement and use of forced and child labour in his factories during the war. He sourced his workers from concentration camps, and forced these victims to work in horrific and dangerous conditions, making weapons for the German army. He was charged with crimes against humanity, in 1951, and died in 1967.

Conceptual Elements

I believe that the idea behind this image is to showcase the power of money and industrial strength that was behind World War II.

Photography’s Functions

Photography is medium that allows news to be spread, and new ideas to be shared eg: Photojournalism, documentary photography, and ways of advertising: fashion photography as well as product photography. Photography is important for this reason: it allows voices that would otherwise silent to ber heard, and different perspectives and points of view to be voiced.

Photography can be used to tell stories, as well as provoking memories. People make photographs to capture memories as well as to document a time, or place. The passing of time is a common idea that photographers seek to portray: for example age, or historic moments. To be a good photographer, you need lots of patience, as well as an eye for different shapes and symmetry.

Can photographic images be trusted?

Unfortunately, in today’s digital age, images can be heavily manipulated, as well as only telling one side of a story. Tools such as cropping, photo manipulation and different angles allow photos to be twisted and changed to show only one view, or be made to look older / newer than reality. This can cause issues in the world of politics and social media, as well as current affairs and news.

Kevin Carter took this photo in 1993 of a starving Sudanese boy (who was initially thought to have been a girl hence the photo name), who collapsed on his way to a feeding centre whilst a vulture waited nearby. This photo sparked controversy because people wondered why he had taken the photo instead of helping the boy. However just out of the frame was the child’s parents and the feeding centre. Carter took them out of the frame in order to to draw more public compassion.

The angle the photo is taken at presents the vulture as superior and makes the viewer anticipate what will happen next. The fact there is no second frame adds to this, which is why it is such a well-recognized image. The contrast between the kneeling child and the towering vulture represents how different the life of these photographers are compared to the people they are taking photos of.

Carter was working in a time when photojournalists were told not to touch famine victims for fear of spreading disease. He estimated that there were twenty people per hour dying at the food centre. The child was not unique. However, he wanted to photograph the child in a way that would cause controversy to bring attention to the amount of young famine victims, not just in Sudan, but around the world.

This is one of Kevin Carters most “iconic”, but “controversial” images which was published in the New York Times in 1993. The image of the collapsed Sudanese girl and the vulture leave the viewers in suspense because they don’t get a second image leaving them to image what happened next. The image is cold and depressing because the little girl was on her way to a feeding centre when the picture was taken and because of the vultures stance it seems like he thinks the little girl is there prey. This image shows the real struggles which people who live in these parts of the world experience and it shows what many people don’t see in everyday life.

Carter got a lot of backlash for this image and was scrutinised for not helping the little girl which led to his unfortunate suicide due to being blamed, but what the public didn’t see was what surrounded the girl. The child was just outside the feeding centre with her parents but unfortunately collapsed when Carter took the picture.

Photography plays an important part in everyone’s day to day life, it lets us see the world from an entirely different perspective. By capturing the present we are able to look at the past, the places, the people and tell stories that would otherwise be forgotten. So what is photography? It’s the craft of creating images by capturing light using a camera.

Functions of photography vary from artist to artist and what they are trying to accomplish. For example a wedding photographer may aim to capture fun and important moments from the event in order for friends and family to enjoy and remember it for years to come. A wildlife photographer on the other hand, could aspire to inspire people to protect endangered species and make a real change.

There are multiple genres of photography all of which are important to understand as a photographer since they could influence your style and technique. The three primary genres include: Nature Photography, People Photography and Manmade Objects. The next part will focus on explaining the most common photography styles everyone should know.

Landscape – Involves capturing the presence of nature and natural scenes. This doesn’t always mean huge maintain ranges and meadows, landscape photography can be microscopic.

Abstract – Uses colour, light, shadow, texture and shape in order to produce a feeling, sensation or impression without presenting the object or scene that’s actually being photographed.

Portrait – Capturing a person or group of people in the way where everything, from the backdrop to the lighting, conveys the personality of the model in one shot.

Sports – Self explanatory, sports photography captures all kinds of sports. Its main application is usually for editorial purposes such as sports magazines.

Travel – Documents places and their historical, cultural and touristic aspects.

Macro – Photographs close-ups of mostly very small subjects such as plants and insects. Not to be confused with micro photography which uses actual microscopes.

Fashion – Capturing models in clothing and other fashion accessories for editorial or advertising purposes.

Documentary – Provides records of events, people and places, adding to a particular storyline, often important historically.

Street – Capturing a scene in a public place. Those photographs are usually candid; unstaged and spontaneous.

Still life – Consists of arranging inanimate objects in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Usually shot for personal, commercial or editorial purposes.

Architectural – Capturing aesthetically pleasing shots of a building’s interior or exterior.

From the moment the first photograph was taken, many have debated whether the practise of photography is an art form or a just a way of using science to capture reality. Before we start answering this question ourselves it’s important to understand what art really means. Art is by definition is the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects. The most common argument against photography being an art is that photography captures reality but doesn’t create a subjective reality. However, aesthetic photographs often blur the line of objective reality.

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus” – Mark Twain

That being said, it would be unreasonable to consider every photograph ever taken art. One can argue that only images that evoke an emotional response should be considered art. Since the photographer consciously makes creative choices about the lighting, framing, subjects, technical settings and editing as well as the overall symbolism and meaning of the photograph, we should be able to call a photographer an artist and therefore, photography an art form.

Now that we have accepted photography as an art form we should talk about photography as a science.

Photography originated from a collaboration of scientists trying to discover a way to permanently capture light on a flat surface. The first photograph was taken in 1826 by a french physicist and inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. This wouldn’t be possible without the use of chemistry and physics. Since then the study of photography came a long way, today photography gives back to science, helping us record and document significant findings.

“Photography, born of and shaped by science, transformed the nature of observation and stretched the parameters of knowledge and humanity’s sense of itself”
— Marvin Heiferman

This photograph is known as the ‘Migrant Mother’ and it is one of the most iconic photographs in American History. It was taken in 1936 by the American photographer Dorothea Lange, and it symbolises the hunger, poverty and hopelessness endured by many Americans during the Great Depression.

In this picture, we can see an elderly woman that is deep in thought and observing something in front of her while having her one hand lifted to her mouth. She has two children leaning against each of her shoulders, both facing away from the mother and appearing to be dressed in rags like the woman herself. There also appears to be a baby bundled up in a blanket on top of the woman’s lap.

The photographer took this picture from the waist up, with the mother being in the centre and two of her children on either shoulder, then turned it black and white. The lack of colour is  making it feel old and like the mother has lost all hope and is probably going through depression. There’s a lot of detail in this picture; for example, the woman’s wrinkles are very visible on her skin, which could symbolise all the stress she has gone through and all the anxiety. You can also see that there is dirt on their skins and clothing, showing that they have been struggling and going through this for a long time. This makes the viewer feel sympathy towards the mother and her children.

Contextual –

Robert Frank Trolley travelled around America, taking photos for his book. This photo shows its a group of different people travelling somewhere on a bus in 1955, post war when racism was still quite big and coloured people were still made to sit at the back. The bus signifies how old the photo is and when this picture was taken as it is very old fashioned.

Conceptual –

It could show how unfair the treatment of coloured people was back in 1955 as they were made to sit at the back of the bus and their facial expressions could signify how unfair they think that it is.

Visual –

The light and dark tones, created through the natural light, contrasts against each other, which catches your eye and makes the reflection in the windows above quite clear which draws your attention to it make you wonder where in New Orleans this was taken and what the surroundings were like. The bars in between each people can show how it may look like they are imprisoned and sectioned off.

Technical –

The lighting in this picture is quite natural, which is created by the daylight, while also being under exposed due to the time in which it was taken and the cameras which would have been available, this creates quite a cold feel for the atmosphere the photo creates. The lens which creates the way the picture was taken is at quite a wide angle but is very focussed on the subjects within it, so that it catches your attention well.