Friday, April 8, 2011

Cyantoped Face





The majority of people who call themselves photographers these days have most likely never stepped into a darkroom. I'm sure the average person who buys a fancy DSLR has never wanted to pull their hair out, screaming, and cursing God- in a completely lightproof room- as they try to load their negatives onto those tedious reels and into little containers. I doubt they have been covered in developer and fixer, praying that their negatives will come out. I might be wrong, bit I'm also going to go ahead and presume they have never enlarged 120 film onto ortho sheet film, and cursed the jerk next to them in the darkroom who didn't turn off their cell phone, and ruined the 3.00 piece of film you've been working on printing.


These are Cyanotype prints that I made in an Alternative Processes class I took with my amazing professor, Melanie Walker, while I was working towards my BFA in photo at CU Boulder. It was by far one of my favorite art classes because it was just so much fun, and there was so much room for crazy experimentation, which I really enjoy. Enlarging negatives and drawing on paper with wax crayons, sewing into the paper, making collages and cutting up photos with emulsion lifts. I love it. I love photography and I love the darkroom. I love making stuff. I don't love Photoshop.