Edward Sheriff Curtis

Edward Sheriff Curtis was an American ethnologist and later photographer of various Native American cultures as well as the American West. He has an extensive collection of images that were all said to have originally been printed using the cyanotype method. I was curious as why he chose to do so but really admired his images. I was also very curious about the first image which looks like it has some faded writing in the background.

Link: http://www.edwardcurtis.com/collectors-guide/

David Chow Cyanotypes

David is a U.K. based artist that studied at Cambridge school of the Arts. He started out photographing photos of flowers in black and white and then later turned to alternative processes. What attracts me so deeply to the photos are their essence of monumentality. In reality all we are viewing is a little flower, delicate and refined. However, in these photos suddenly Chow has transformed them in front of our eyes, making them bold, impacting, and unapologetic. Within this, however they still retain their grace and elegance while being expressive and extensively graphic.

Ruediger Beckmann

Ruediger Beckmann is a portrait photographer who focuses on intimate photos of women. I am usually suspicious of any man's motives when his work primarily focuses on scantily clad women, but his work struck me as very tender and honest. I liked the way he used cyanotypes to give his photos a further depth, with a process that becomes tangible and personal after the shoot.

Susie Liddle

Susie Liddle did a series of cyanotype soft sculptures/dolls. I thought it was a really interesting idea of the photograph as object versus woman as object and a lovely use of the medium. Also, they kind of resemble fine china (at least the women printed in/on the bowl do), which also reminded me about the concept of the perceived fragility of women.

Dyeing cyanotypes

Here's a little something on washing cyanotypes. I'm interested in getting variations of color from these. In the past I did something to make them hot pink instead of dark blue but I can't find out/remember what it was now. The colors they show here are nice too though!

http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/processes/cyanotype/washing-cyanotypes-on-fabrics-or-cloth

"Timophey"

The only name I can find for this artist is his first name. He goes by "urbantrip" on Deviantart. I was really drawn to his cyanotypes because of the way he gives them organic edges. The first one is especially my favourite, because it doesn't even show the fram of the photo. I like how the photo just fades into the paper.

Fred Holland Day

Fred Holland Day was one of the first American advocates for photography to be considered a fine art. In his work he experimented with symbolism and subjects of religion, and his portraiture alludes to classical antiquity in style, composition, and theme as was popular in the early 20th century. At first well known and respected, he was eventually eclipsed by Alfred Stieglitz, his rival, and after a house fire many of his negatives and original pieces were lost forever.
I'm really interested in how he was able to achieve such soft lighting in cyanotype, the haziness that evokes a dream-like feeling in his imagery. Also after having myself attempted to print portraits from digital negatives, I wonder how he was able to get such nice gradients in his pictures.

ca. 1900-1910, cyanotype, 6 1/8" x 8 1/8"

Maine, ca. 1900-1912, cyanotype, 3 11/16" x 4 11/16"

Maynard White, Little Good Harbor, Maine, ca. 1912 , cyanotype, 7 7/8" x 7 1/4"

Lauren Snyder

Lauren Snyder is a professor at MICA's photography department and teaches Alternative Processes and Book Making. Her website contains a big body of work made of cyanotypes, but I particularly like her Wall Books: Books in Homage to Anna Atkins, and Cyanotype Prints series for their harmonious design and sharp images. There's an aesthetic balance that could have easily gone to chaos, yet she managed to keep her work clear and somehow hypnotic. 

Lauren Francescone- Cyanotypes with Unexpected Subject

Lauren Francescone is a graphic designer who's work demonstrates a geometric quality. Her cyanotypes of condoms was interesting to me because it's not exactly the first thing one thinks of for cyanotypes. But in fact, they look great! The latex and variation in thickness causes a sense of dimensionality to the fairly flat forms while the size and composition of the pieces re-contextualize the condoms. Personally, I think they almost resemble fish swimming through water, and the close proximity of the circles suggest ideas of togetherness and intimacy. 

cyanotype scarf

http://thecraftsdept.marthastewart.com/2011/03/cyanotype-tutorial.html

Cyanotypes so blue

These are some pretty beautiful Cyanotypes I found by an artist Natalie Cheung from her time in grad school at Tyler University. She is exploring fractal geometry and they are photograms of the actual cyanotypes.. I'm really interested in pattern-making and form in alternative processing, so hopefully I will try to explore that. The cyanotypes really open up the world of what the image can be printed on...

6-month long pinhole exposures

CHECK THIS OUT!

http://www.lomography.com/magazine/tipster/2010/06/18/six-month-long-pinhole-exposures

Caitlyn Soldan

Caitlyn Soldan, photographer from Chicago, has been able to achieve really beautiful textures with these pinhole images..

Christian Harkness

Christian Harkness is an artist who often uses pinholes, cyanotypes, and film in her work. This photo is an 11′x17′ Cyanotype print from a 35mm Neopan 1600 pinhole negative. 
A link to her blog is- http://chrislh.wordpress.com/

The Magic of Pinhole Cameras

In my research, it was quite astounding to find how sharp pinhole images can be when the camera construction is mastered. I'm interested in attempting to create images of this caliber that appear as if they were taken on 35mm or medium format. Likewise, there were also other equally as interesting images that were blurry and reminded me of Dianas and Holgas. I found out that the Rayko Photo Center in my hometown of San Francisco hosts an entire show of just pinhole photos. Perhaps that could be a ptotential show to submit to after this class.....I also found out that National Pinhole Photography Day is April 25th. I've linked a flickr of pictures of the gallery setting that Rayko displayed their show in, and you can sneak peak some of the work that was displayed:




http://www.flickr.com/photos/dronepop/2457971376/in/photostream/

Jay Bender has a few examples of color pinhole photography. I'd like to experiment with this, but it would cost a lot.

Hetty Rose x Stephen Jones "Pinhole Shoes"

Interesting article + gallery from Dazed and Confused regarding the use of a pinhole camera in fashion/advertising photography, something I was curious to see whether or not had been done before. I think the colors here are really great - also note the "photographer's presence" in the first photo

Full article

Documentary Pinhole Photography

http://www.aeternus.com/foyer/urban/flash/index.html

I found the mission statement along with the execution of their project pretty impressive. I’m curious to know how the human subjects reacted to the use of such a rudimentary photographic medium in the street/documentary fashion.

Chris Keeney

Chris Keeney seems to do pinhole for fun on the side of more commercial work like weddings and portraiture. One thing that I haven't seen much of before is color pinhole which he plays with some. I want to try out shooting straight onto film.

Nancy Breslin

I know very little about pinhole photography, and while I have created images from a pinhole they were not very successful.  I really like the feeling of control Nancy Breslin has in her images.  They're all in normal day to day scenes but seem very intentional.  The backgrounds are fairly crisp and the people in each shot seem like ghosts because of their motion blur.

 Self Portrait - Nancy Breslin, January 2012

Sarah Moon

Sarah Moon is a French photographer born in 1941. She is well known for her very personalized commercial work; she captures a certain mood and drama by pushing the simplicity of her mediums to their extremes, allowing her images to decay, using day light or tungsten to heighten the graininess of her photographs and favoring black and white film unless she gets to choose the colors of her final images. It's only the age of 29 that Moon finally faced her fear of failure, and began to structure and investigate, research and repeat her photographic process. Ever since, she's maintain a great tenacity and determination through her artistic practice, always looking for the new or forgotten and welcoming the unexpected. Moon also shot numerous campaigns for Chanel, Rykiel, Miyake, Thierry Mugler, Lacrois, Dior, and various fashion magazines. For those interested for more in various photographic effects and Sarah Moon's personal thinking process, you get a bonus.