The Cyanotype Process - ChristopherJames-Studio.com

1 102 The Cyanotype ProcessThe Cyanotype Process6 OVERVIEW AND EXPECTATIONSThe Cyanotype (Ferro-Prussiate) is often the first Process you will encounter in alternative/non-silver photography. The reason for this is the absolute simplicity of the nearly fail-safe techniqueand chemistry and the likelihood that you will make a successful print within a short time. Thischapter begins with a little history to show you where it all came from, including introducing youto the first woman photographer, Anna Atkins. You ll learn about the chemistry and how to prepareand use it as a UV light-sensitized solution and how to adjust the Cyanotype formula for specificcorrections. Also included is a discussion about substrates, sizing, coating, light sources, exposure,and development in water or acids for additional control of the Process .

2 This chapter also dealswith accelerated oxidation, highlight clearing, trouble-shooting, and many toning options for thecyanotype in the event that the color blue just doesn t seem like the right one for the subject inyour print. This will prepare you for additional information on Cyanotype fabric murals, MichaelWare s New Cyanotype Process , and combination processes with HISTORYThe Cyanotype was the first simple and successfully realized practical non-silver iron by Sir John Herschel (1792 1871) in 1842, a mere three years after the official announcement of the discovery of photography, the Cyanotype provided permanent images in anelegant assortment of blue values. Herschel is the same gentleman who coined the words positiveand negative, photograph, and snapshot. He is also credited, in 1819, with discovering that a solution of sodium thiosulfate (which he referred to as hyposulfite of soda) had the ability todissolve silver chloride and what that particular chemical s role might be in permanently fixing a photographic image.

3 This is an important bit of information that he passed along to , Herschel did not officially announce this particular finding until 1839. Figure 6 1 Christopher James,Self-Portrait withPinhole, Maine, 1994(Courtesy of theartist)103 THEBOOKOFALTERNATIVEPHOTOGRAPHICPROCESSE S104 Herschel was a very busy gentleman who invented anumber of non-silver and alternativephotographicprocesses, including the Argentotype in which iron salts(ferric citrate) were used to precipitate silver under theinfluence of light and were subsequently developed in sil-ver nitrate. He also developed a charming and odd tech-nique, which is described for you in another chapter,called the Process involved using crushedflower petals, a little alcohol, and a 2 to 3 week exposureinsunlight three of the key ingredients for a introduced the Anthotype in a paper mod-estly entitled, On the Action of Rays of the Solar Spec-trum on Vegetable Colors and on Some New PhotographicProcesses.

4 The initial portion of this historic paper con-cerned itself with the Anthotype, describing the bleach-ing effect of sunlight on extracted flower juices applied topaper. The second part of his paper dealt with the photo-sensitivity of ferric (iron in a trivalent state) salts to lightand how, on exposure to light, the ferric salts reduced tothe ferrous (ironina bivalent state) state. As a point ofinformation, valentis a term meaning worth, or value in scientific terminology. It was this Process he named theArgentotype. A short time later, Herschel announced thatferrous salts could also reduce silver to its metallic state andthat he had developed a Process to show this phenome-non. The Argentotype was later modified as the Kalli-type/Van Dyke was a gentleman scientist and his investiga-tions primarily revolved around the concept of experi-mentation for its own sake rather than practicalapplication.

5 Between 1839 and 1842 he conducted hun-dreds of separate experiments on the light-sensitivity of sil-ver salts, metals, and vegetation, including an investigationof potassium ferrocyanide. This aspect of his work wasaugmented by Dr. Alfred Smee s work in electrochemistry,which resulted in a refined version of the potassium fer-rocyanide that he was generous enough to share withHerschel. Working with Smee s chemistry, Herschel con-tinued his experiments with variations of chemical andlight reactions. In one such experiment he described atechnique in which a piece of paper was coated with asolution of ferric ammonium citrate and exposed to lightunder a positive image. The exposed paper was then devel-Figure 6 2 Julia Margaret Cameron, The Astronomer (Sir John Herschel, 1867)Julia Margaret Cameron (1815 1879) began her career as a photographerin 1849 shortly after returning to England from India.

6 Her work was cen-tered on the ideals, and allegories, investigated by the Pre-Raphaelites, agroup of artists who despised industrialization and yearned for the returnof mythic heroes and romanticism. Her style, like this albumen print por-trait of Herschel, is an example of the principal innovation she brought tothe medium: the close and uncompromising psychology of the subjectbefore her camera.(Courtesy of the Royal Photographic Society)CHAPTER6 THECYANOTYPEPROCESS105oped with a potassium ferricyanide solution that resultedin a blue negative. These are the two primary chemicalsfound in the classic Cyanotype still another variation, which Herschel named theChrysotype, he sensitized a sheet of paper with ferricammonium citrate, contact printed and then developedthe paper in a weak solution of gold chloride. The ferroussalts, created by exposure, reduced the gold, which thenprecipitated as a purple deposit over the image in directproportion to the exposure.

7 If you are interested in tryingyour hand at Chrysotypes, Dr. Michael Ware has done alot of work on a more consistent variation of this processthat he calls the New Cyanotype was popular for a short time andexperimented with by many, thanks to a commerciallyproduced Ferroprussiate Cyanotype paper. The first com-mercial use of the Cyanotype was initiated in 1876 at thePhiladelphia Centennial Exposition, and this industrialapplication heralded the adoption of the Process forschematic blueprint drawings that would be used by engi-neers and builders. There is an odd historical tidbit con-cerning the Cyanotype that involved Lt. , founder of the Boy Scouts. Apparently,Baden-Powell ordered the Cyanotype Process to be used tomake stamps and money during the siege of Mafeking inthe Boer War (1899 1902) between Great Britain and person who placed himself into the history ofthe Cyanotype was the outspoken and very curmudgeonlyEnglish physician/photographer Peter Henry Emerson(1856 1936), who said.

8 Only a vandal would print alandscape in red or in Cyanotype . Emerson, by the way,spent an important part of his life tormented by the debatebetween those who believed photography could be dis-tilled into a set of hard and fast rules and those whobelieved that it was a flexible form of expression andimpression. In 1886, Emerson, as a member of the Coun-cil of the Photographic Society, began to deliver a seriesof lectures that defined the correct, naturalistic, way toapproach the newmedium. He trashed image-makerssuch as Henry Peach Robinson and attempted to definean unassailable position in which a photograph shouldalways aspire to represent an artist s true aesthetic vision,as in the Impressionist painting s idealism came to an abrupt halt in 1890when Ferdinand Hurter (1844 1898) and Vero Driffield(1848 1915) announced their method of scientificallymeasuring the sensitivity of photographic plates involv-ing the measurement of light intensities and resultingdensities.

9 In addition, they devised a theory of controllingFigure 6 3 Peter Henry Emerson, Gathering WaterLilies, 1886(Platinum print plate #9 from Life andLandscape on the Norfolk Broads)Peter Henry Emerson (1856 1936) said, .. only a vandal would print a land-scape in red or in Cyanotype . (Courtesy of the George EastmanHouse, Rochester, NY)THEBOOKOFALTERNATIVEPHOTOGRAPHICPROCE SSES106 Figure 6 4 Anna Atkins (1799 1871), Cyanotype of Algae, c. 1843 From the first published book illustrated with photographic images, BritishAlgae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843 1853). Atkins was the first womanphotographer and presumably learned the Cyanotype Process fromHerschel, who was a family friend.(Courtesy of the Gernsheim Collection, Ransom Center, University ofTexas Austin)Anna Atkins: The First Woman PhotographerAnna Atkins (1799 1871) was the first woman to sparingly by traditional photo historians, shemade beautiful Cyanotype images of algae, ferns, feathers,and waterweeds.

10 Her botanist father, John George Chil-dren, and Herschel were friends, and the Atkins and Her-schel families resided only 30 miles apart in Kent, was a member of the Royal Society, and when hisfriend Herschel announced his discovery of the Cyanotype (1842) Children quickly passed the news on to his daughterAnna. Although there is no conclusive evidence that Her-schel was Atkins s mentor it is more than probable that shelearned the Cyanotype Process in the Herschel Atkins made thirteen known versions of her workentitledBritish Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843 1853).In October 1843 Atkins began issuing published folios of herphotogenic (photogram) drawings. In 1850, she began topublish more comprehensive collections of her work, com-pleting a three-volume anthology in 1853. These books,containing hundreds of handmade images, were the veryfirst published works to utilize a photographic system forpurposes of scientific investigation and illustration.