printed by the sun

Some cyanotype sun prints I made on the beach, An Corran on the Isle of Skye.

I love making these as you are at the mercy of alchemy. Different sunlight, paper grain and time will make completely different results.

I made a few during lockdown “home school” with my boy on our beach. We had a pack of litmus paper so were learning about acid and alkaline and the like, doing experiments. And we made some packs for pals and posted them so they could be photo detectives too. Word on the street is that some blew off window sills and might still be at large.

I’ve made them usually with digital negatives but this time I just wanted to use whatever I could find on the beach. I wanted to spend the day connecting with all the things that fill me up so I pranced about the beach in my pants, laid out pages from old stories and music books and added found feathers, seaweeds and pebbles. It’s harder to wash off the chemicals on the delicate wet paper using the sea so some have streaks on them and I kind of like how that went. A very wholesome time was had too.

I’ve got some ideas for using this technique for a larger scale project but I need to learn more about the angles of the sun and shadows, do a bit of practising…