Photographic Intervention
Personal Project
Cyanotype
Cyanotype is a development technique that allows us to manually, and in a home-made fashion, develop photographs using the sun.
I found myself exploring this technique as it allows a lot of creative freedom when it comes to textures. Be that because of the paper of choice or the brushstrokes with which the solution is applied, cyanotype provides endless opportunities for me.
As the name suggests, the photographs developed with cyanotype have a very distinctive color. This can be left on it's own or it can be turned into a deeper and darker shade of blue (through the use of hydrogen peroxide), or even to shades of brown of different depths and strengths.
I personally use mate leaves as I've found them most effective in turning the cyan into a darker, almost blackish blue; and add a little hydrogen peroxide to increase contrast.
II.
Analogue Intervention
Once my photographs have been developed I like to keep on experimenting with textures so I add dry foliage (the mood, the mood, the very melancholic mood they give); and with simple embroidery patterns.
In part because I find it very relaxing and in part because I like the delicacy of working on heavily treated paper: I began experimenting with embroidery on paper to create yet another layer of texture and to play with the intertextuality a set of knots and loose threads would create.
Finally, when the piece is finished I'll often find parts of the paper that have been left too damaged by the process. Taking inspiration from the japanese art of repairing broken pottery called Kintsugi, I will highlight those with gold leaf.
