At the end of January 2020, I attended a cyanotype workshop held by Karl H. Warkentin. While I was doing the course, I felt that tingling sensation that enthralls me when something really excites me. Nevertheless, it was almost a whole year before I finally found the time to indulge myself again. But first, let me give you some background:

Cyanotype is one of the oldest photographic processes and was discovered in 1842 by British scientist, Sir John Herschel. Iron salts applied to paper react with UV light to faithfully reproduce a negative or the silhouette of an object. Later it was often used for duplicating technical drawings.

But it is in fact Anna Atkins, the first female photographer and botanist, whom we have to thank for the fact that artists and photographers are still using this printing process today. Her father and Sir John Herschel were friends which is how Atkins became aware of this relevant information at an early age, possibly even learning about the procedure in Herschel’s home. She began to illustrate her herbarium of algae and ferns with the help of cyanotype, demonstrating an exceedingly poetic and artistic vein. From 1843, she published her pictures, which, by 1853, she had compiled into a three-volume scientific anthology.

My long-awaited moment came at Christmas 2020: I coated my first sheets with the light-sensitive chemicals. The actual process itself is extremely interesting, because you can greatly influence the later appearance of the picture through the form and type of application. I had a range of paper with different structures and thicknesses. And then I started to expose and develop....

After a little faltering at the beginning, what emerged was a successful, experimental and refreshingly imperfect collection of mostly quite small prints – or at least that is the way I see it. It would simply be too much to show you them all. But I have selected a few for you here. For a long time now, I have been interested in alternative printing techniques and I have the feeling that there a still a few things I need to pursue in this area yet. To put it in the words of Christopher James: “Cyanotype is the proverbial ‚first kiss‘ that sinks the hook and makes us fall in love with all of the possibilities to come with alternative process image making.“

All I can say to that is I hope I’m given the time...

(Source: “Christopher James, Alternative Photographic Processes”, and: “Marlis Maehrle, Blaue Wunder”)