01: Study
Christian Marclay, Large Cassette Grid No.9, 2009cyanotype, 38 1/2 x 39″
Image Courtesy Fraenkel GalleryCyanotype
Cyanotype is one of photography’s earliest processes, a simple yet transformative technique that uses sunlight and iron salts to create deep blue images. Invented in 1842 by Sir John Herschel, it was first embraced by botanist Anna Atkins, who used it to document plant specimens in what is considered the first-ever photo book. Beyond its historical roots, cyanotype remains a tactile, almost meditative practice—one that turns exposure into an act of ritual. The process, reliant on time, light, and touch, echoes photography’s fundamental nature: the act of capturing fleeting moments and making them tangible. Today, artists continue to explore cyanotype’s potential, drawn to its handmade quality and elemental connection to the world around us.
Mika Horie, Untouched Snowscape, 2021Cyanotype on handmade Japanese Gampi paperc 25.8 x 22.8 cm
Image Courtesy of Ibasho Gallery
Joy Gregory, Girl Thing (2002 – 2005)
Meghann Riepenhoff, Ecotone #1409 (Bainbridge Island, WA Unknown Date of First Exposure + 12.30.21-01.02.22, Snowmelt and Mixed Precipitation), 2022
The beauty of these cyanotype collages is that they are both hyper-realistic and indeterminable, resisting any fixed reading.
- Wu Chi-Tsung
WU Chi-Tsung, Cyano-Collage 119 (2021)
Sir John Herschel invented the cyanotype in 1842. The process depends on the
photochemical reduction of ferric salts into ferrous salts leading to the formation of Prussian blue, an iron-based pigment. The process was used sporadically throughout the 19th century and more frequently in the twentieth century for the reproduction of architectural plans and technical drawings, called “blueprints."
Tarrah Krajnak talks about her exhibition ‘Rock, Paper, Sun’ which brings together new performance-based works that grew from several years of ritualized forms of writing and experimental photography. The works are grounded in ecopoetic thinking and the desire to access embodied forms of knowledge through attention to the environment, to the body’s presence, and to the rhythms of daily life.
Artist Sean McFarland asks if photographs make us pay more or less attention to the world around us. The 2017 SECA Art Award recipient discusses how context helps determine what we see in an image and how a minimalist approach can produce more evocative representations.