The cyanotype process is a form of printmaking that utilizes UV light and physical objects to expose images and forms on your medium of choice. As a printmaker, I often choose to expose my cyanotype on paper, although I sometimes dabble in cyanotype shirts (with much trial and error and many breakdowns). As a person who has always been more artistically inclined, I appreciate cyanotype for its ability to bridge the gap between art and science. I find it easier to relate to for people who don't feel as connected to other artistic practices such as painting or drawing. I also love cyanotype for its connection to photography. The main form of cyanotype that I create involves exposing photo negatives that I have taken over the years. I love film photography and cyanotype inherently creates a result that is reminiscent of film without needing to develop a whole roll. Accurately named, CYANotype innately develops in a bright deep cyan blue color when exposed properly. Because of this, the beachy photography that I choose to develop translates perfectly to the rich blue and white hues.
The cyanotype process begins in a dark room devoid of natural UV light. Personally, I use my bathroom without windows (I learned that keeping the overhead lights on is ok and won't negatively affect the cyanotype development). A thin and even coating of cyanotype solution is applied to the paper and it is left overnight to dry. It is important to let your paper dry completely before exposing otherwise the image will not develop properly.
The cyanotype process is fragile; it takes a lot of trial and error and can either be exposed successfully or unsuccessfully due to many different factors. One of these factors is the UV index. On days with a low UV index, I can expose a single cyanotype anywhere from 10-40 minutes. On a day with a higher UV index, cyanotypes can expose in as fast as a minute or two. I think the fastest I ever exposed a cyanotype was a minute and twenty seconds with a UV index of 9 this past July. In general, in winter months, expect cyanotypes to expose at a much slower rate, at double or even triple the amount of time it takes in summer months. Another thing to account for is cloud cover. While cyanotypes will still expose with a high UV on an overcast day, it is really important to take note of the amount of clouds in the sky as a cyanotype in direct sunlight will ALWAYS expose faster. An overexposed cyanotype will be completely blue and not have any light areas and will appear as a very dark image. An underexposed cyanotype will rinse out and appear extremely light and won't contain any dark areas. Along with UV index, another thing that can impact the cyanotype exposure is the density of your photo negative or chosen object. If you are using a bright, light photonegative with lots of negative space, the image is going to develop faster compared to negatives with a lot of dark or gray space. This is a big reason why image quality is very important when selecting your photos.
Once you expose your image, the last step is to rinse out the solution in cold water. Many people add hydrogen peroxide to their water and let the print soak to deepen the blue- I have not experimented much with this yet as I love the natural color that results from the cyanotype. My favorite part of the process -also the moment of truth- is rinsing out the chemicals and seeing the image come to life on the paper (or witnessing your cyanotype effort fail).
One thing to note when cyanotyping is anything that blocks out the light will be white on the paper. This is why we use photo negatives because similarly to developing photography, the sun will expose the final image in its positive form. If you start with the the positive image, the final exposure will be in negative (darks will be light and lights will be dark) Creating a photo negative is very easy, most photo editing apps have a free negative filter (I use Picsart).
I hope you enjoyed learning about the cyanotype process and please feel free to email or dm me if you ever want to talk about it or need help exposing your images!
