The history of the Cyanotype process, examples of historic and contemporary cyanotypes, and instructions for making your own

1. CYANOTYPE
PHOTOGRAPHY
The history and revival of one of the oldest forms of photography

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3. THE STATE OF PHOTOGRAPHY
• 1837: Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre: First practical photographic process, the
daguerreotype
• Coat copper plate with silver
• Shortly before exposure, polish to mirror finish
• Wash with nitric acid
• Under safelight, expose to iodine fumes
• Keeping plate in dark, put in camera and expose for minutes
• Develop in mercury fumes
• Fix in hot saturated solution of common salt

4. THE STATE OF PHOTOGRAPHY
• 1841: William Fox Talbot: announced the Calotype (καλός, "beautiful", and τύπος,
"impression”) – first practical positive/negative process
• Brush paper with silver nitrate
• Dry
• Dip in potassium iodide
• Dry
• Just before exposure, brush with “gallo-nitrate of silver” (solution of silver nitrate, acetic
acid and gallic acid )
• Blot lightly and expose
• Develop by brushing in gallo-nitrate of silver while gently warming the paper
• Fix in hot solution of sodium thiosulfate (hypo) – invented by Sir John Herschel in 1839

5. SIR JOHN HERSCHEL
• Sir John Frederick William Herschel (1792 –1871)
• English mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor,
experimental photographer
• Named seven moons of Saturn and four moons of
Uranus.
• Made many contributions to the science
of photography, and investigated colour blindness and
the chemical power of ultraviolet rays
• His Preliminary Discourse (1831), which advocated
an inductive approach to scientific experiment and
theory building, was an important contribution to the
philosophy of science. Sir John F.W. Herschel by
Julia Margaret Cameron
(1867)Artist unknown (1846)

6. SIMPLIFY AND STABILIZE
• Sir John Herschel performed over 1000 experiments looking to simplify the process,
make images more permanent, to make a direct-positive, and to make photographs
in color.
• Herschel eventually focused iron salts, known to be light sensitive
• Early example: Count Alexey Bestuscheff, the Lord High Chancellor of Russia,
devised in 1725 Tinctura tonico-nervina
• More Relevant: Giovannji Antonio Scopoli exposed a solution of potassium
ferrocyanide and acetic acid to sunlight in 1783 and observed the precipitation of
Prussian blue.

7. UNLIKELY DISCOVERY OF PRUSSIAN
BLUE
• In 1706, artists’ color maker in Berlin, Jacob Diesbach, wanted to make carmine by
adding potash to cochineal, alum and iron(II) sulfate.
• Potash was purchased from an alchemist called Johann Konrad Dippel who had set
up shop in the same building.
• Instead of getting carmine, blue crystals formed.

9. BLUE PIGMENTS: RARE & EXPENSIVE
• Azurite: unstable to heat and acids – turns to green malachite
• Indigo: from a plant native to India, susceptible to fading
• Ultramarine: ground lapis lazuli, mined only in Afghanistan
• Smalt: a cobalt blue glass . Abrasive and weak covering power, discovered in the 15th
century
• Egyptian Blue
• recipe lost in the 9th century (recovered in 2007)

10. WHERE DID THE BLUE COME FROM?
• Apparently, the potash was contaminated with a malodorous distillate of animal
residues known as ‘Dippel’s oil’
• The reaction of the (yet undiscovered element) nitrogen in the oil with the iron and
carbon resulted in a blue precipitate.
• The crystals turned out to be a useful pigment and was given the name “Prussian
Blue” (or Berliner Blau if you’re German)

11. TRADITIONAL RECIPE
“Six pounds of clippings of leather, six pounds of hoofs and horns,
and ten pounds of common potash, are boiled together in an iron
pot to dryness; the residue is then mixed with two pounds of crude
tartar, and, by means of a strong fire, is brought into fusion. The
lixiviation is conducted in the usual way, and a solution of five
pounds of sulfate of iron, and fifteen of alum being added, a
precipitate takes place, which is Prussian blue.”

12. CHEMISTS GO TO WORK
• All sorts of new compounds can be derived from Prussian Blue, including
• Prussic acid or Blausäure – ‘blue acid’ (isolated in 1811 by Gay-Lussac)
• or more ”scientific” name: cyan acid (from the Greek kýanos - dark blue)
• Formula HCN
• Gay-Lussac called the –CN radical cyanogène, (blue-making) establishing the name
for a whole class of important new compounds – the cyanides.
• The most complex of which is ferric ferrocyanide - Prussian Blue.

13. BESTUSCHEFF REDEEMED! (SORT OF)
• Prussian Blue has lots of holes that can absorb and
hold stuff
• Fed to sheep on the uplands of North Wales,
Cumbria and Scotland following the disastrous
Chernobyl reactor explosion of April 1986 to absorb
cesium-137
• Used to treat heavy metal poisoning in humans, e.g.
thallium
Red=Fe+3 Black=Fe+2 Red=carbon
White=Nitrogen

14. CYANOTYPE INVENTED
• Early spring of 1842 Herschel, based on his interested in “deeply colored salts”,
starts working with iron-containing cyanides using samples sent to him by Dr. Alfred
Smee, who had shown an electric current can cause them to change color.
• Herschel discovers paper coated with a solution of these salts are slightly light
sensitive
• Smee suggests Herschel investigate Ammonio Citrate and Ammonio Tartrate of
Iron, promoted as medicines, because they are “perfectly soluble and give very dark
solutions”. They turn out to be light sensitive as well.
• What happens when you mix the two?

15. • On April 23, 1842 records a formulation of ammonium iron citrate and potassium
ferricyanide which when exposed to light, generate ferric ferrocyanide - Prussian
Blue.
• Image is fixed by washing with water, removing the unexposed salts.

16. HOW IT WORKS
• Even today, the process is not completely understood, but basically…
• Paper coated with ammonium iron citrate and potassium ferricyanide is a light
yellow color.
• ammonium iron citrate + h𝜈 ⇒ Fe+2
• Fe+2 + potassium ferricyanide ⇒ ferric ferrocyanide (Prussian blue)
• The unconverted (unexposed) ammonium iron citrate and potassium ferricyanide
are water soluble, and so is washed away.

17. EARLY CYANOTYPE PHOTOGRAPHY
• Herschel made contact prints of paper prints from
engravings
• He sometimes use the print as an “internegative” to
make a positive
• He unsuccessfully searched for a direct positive to
eliminate that step.
Sir John Herschel. The Honourable Mrs. Leicester Stanhope
(1842). from an engraving by Charles Rolls (1836)

18. EARLY CYANOTYPE PHOTOGRAPHY
• Most famous collection of cyanotypes is a book by
botanist Anna Atkins, Photographs of British Algæ.
Cyanotype Impressions, 1843-1853
• Technique learned from her friend, John Herschel
• Sold by Christie’s for $406,460

19. FALL INTO DISREPUTE
By 1900, cyanotypes were not considered
“photography” (although they fared slightly better in
the USA)
“ ... no one but a vandal would print a landscape in red,
or in cyanotype.”
“ The Ferro-Prussiate printing process, of course, does
not concern us, blue prints are only for plans, not for
art.”
• Peter Henry Emerson in Naturalistic Photography for
Students of the Art, (London: Sampson Low, Marston,
Searle and Rivington, 1889)
Paul Burty Haviland, Florence
Peterson in a Kimono, (1910)

20. ARTISTIC RENAISSANCE
Angela Easterling

21. David Chow

22. Christian Marclay

23. Anna Lopez

24. Meghann
Riepenhoff
Represented by
Euqinom Gallery
1295 Alabama St.
San Francisco

25. DIY PRACTICAL STUFF
• You can make your own secret formula sensitizer chemicals using compounds from chemical
supply houses (e.g. The Science Shop https://www.scienceshopusa.com in Santa Clara), and
coat your own substrates
• You can buy pre-made formulas from, e.g. Freestyle Photographic Supply
https://www.freestylephoto.biz/ , Photographer’s Formulary
http://stores.photoformulary.com/ or Bostick-Sullivan http://www.bostick-sullivan.com/
• By pre-coated paper from
• https://natureprintpaper.com
• http://www.sunprints.org
• https://cyanotypestore.com
• http://www.tedcotoys.com/p/sunart-paper
• https://www.bhphotovideo.com

26. CREATING A PRINT - PHOTOGRAM
• Arrange objects that have an interesting 2-D shape and block light on the paper in
an interesting pattern, AND/OR
• Arrange objects that create interesting patterns of light on the paper
• If the objects need to be held flat, place a sheet of plexiglass on top.
• Expose to UV light (e.g. the sun). In cloudless noon-day sun, 2 min is a good guess.
• Wash in water for 10 – 15 min, dry overnight to achieve full contrast.

27. CREATING A PRINT FROM A
PHOTOGRAPH
• Start with a good digital monochrome image
• In Photoshop
• Resize to final print size
• Sharpen as appropriate
• Apply Layer>Adjustment Layer>Invert
• Apply Layer>Adjustment Layer Curves as desired
• Print on injet transparency material using a gloss paper profile or Advanced B&W,
“darkest”. Click “Emulsion Side Down”.
• Sandwich & Clamp backing board, cyanotype paper, digital negative - inkjet side
down, and Plexiglas together.
• Expose and develop as before

28. DETERMINING OPTIMUM EXPOSURE
• Cover half a sheet with clear
transparency material
• Expose strips for varying lengths of
time (1 – 5 minutes)
• Optimum exposure (minimum exposure
for maximum “blue”) is the time at
which there is no difference between
covered and uncovered portion of strip
• For SunPrint paper and my UV light
source, this is 14 minutes

29. USE OF CURVES WHEN MAKING A
NEGATIVE

30. USE OF CURVES WHEN MAKING A
NEGATIVE
No Curve SunPrint Curve

31. USE OF CURVES WHEN MAKING
A NEGATIVE
No Curve SunPrint Curve

32. MAKE YOUR OWN PAPER
• Select you paper
• Recommend hot-pressed, unbuffered paper with weight of at least 32 lbs
• Arches Platine,
• Awagami Platinum Gampi
• Awagami Platinum Mitsumata
• Bergger Cot 320, two weights (similar to Platine)
• Hahnemühle Platinum Rag
• Experiment with other papers
• Buy or make stock solution A of Ammonium iron(III) citrate, and stock solution B of
potassium ferricyanide (or other secret formula)
• Immediately before coating, mix equal parts of A and B to make just enough for the amount
of coating you will do.
• Rod coating of 8x10” paper requires ~1.5cc, brush coating twice as much.

33. MAKE YOUR OWN PAPER
• Rod coating
• Poor the mixture along one edge, just outside the image area
• Place the coating rod ion the middle of the solution
• Applying gentle pressure. Pull the rod across the paper.
• When you reach the other end, lift the rod over the bead, set it down, pull the bead of
solution in the opposite direction. Repeat.
• If the solution is not completely absorbed after 6 – 10 passes, blot the excess off with a
paper towel

34. MAKE YOUR OWN PAPER
• Brush Coating
• Wet your brush with distilled water and blot with a paper towel
• Pour the mixed solution into the center of the paper
• Using light pressure, spread the solution in a horizontal pattern
• Switch to a vertical stroke and continue.
• Alternate between horizontal and vertical strokes for about 30 seconds
• Coat an area slightly larger than the image
• Allow to dry in a dark place for about 1 hour
• Paper will be a light yellow color

35. IF YOU REALLY DON’T LIKE BLUE
• There are various methods to tone a cyanotype print (after appropriate pre-
treatment) using common materials like tea and coffee, vegetable dyes, or certain
heavy metals
• “My best advice for toning cyanotypes is this: If you want a color other than the
Prussian blue natural to the cyanotype process, use some other printing method!”
• Young, W Russell III, “Traditional Cyanotype”, in Barnier, John, (ed.), Coming into Focus: A
Step-by-Step Guide to Alternative Photographic Printing Processes, (San Francisco: Chronicle
Books, 2000)

36. REFERENCES
• Cyanotype: The Blueprint in Contemporary Practice, Christina Z. Anderson,
Routledge, New York, NY, 2019. Contains practical info and examples of
contemporary artists.
• For maximum technical detail, see http://www.mikeware.co.uk/
• Particularly, the free download of his book “Cyanomicron -II” (377 pages with 810
references!)
• http://www.alternativephotography.com
• Or just google “cyanotype”

37. TODAY: TYPE B BLUEPRINT PAPER
• Instead of ammonium iron citrate use ammonium ferric oxalate
• A mixture of potassium ferricyanide, and potassium ferrocyanide. Resulting paper
looks light blue
• Exposing ammonium ferric oxalate and potassium ferrocyanide to light produces
Prussian White (iron hexacyanoferrate)
• Paper goes from light blue to blueish gray with light exposure
• Image may initially look like a “positive”
• Rinsing with water and exposure to air oxidizes Prussian White to Prussian Blue,
resulting in a deep blue “negative”. Highlights may have a residual blue tinge
• NOTE: blueprint paper designed for reproducing drawings is unsuitable

38. TODAY’S WORKSHOP
INSTRUCTIONS
• Away from UV light, remove a cyanotype sheet from it’s light-tight package
• Arrange objects or negative on paper, blue side up
• If objects need to be held flat against paper, place Plexiglas or glass plate on top
• Place under UV source
• Expose until sheet turns gray-blue, approximately 10 – 14 minutes with my UV light
• Away from UV light, wash in water for a about 10 minutes
• Allow to dry overnight
• Keep print away from alkali (basic) substances – such as buffered mounting boards