Paula Smith photographer

Paula Smith

Paula Smith is a cyanotypist and mixed media artist, who aims to capture the beauty of nature in its finest…

Cyanotype Notes - Document your cyanotype process

Cyanotype notes – Document your cyanotype process

by Malin Fabbri   Buy the cyanotype notebook here – published by AlternativePhotography.com This notebook contains pre-defined pages with enough room to document 50 cyanotypes that will help you narrow down a universe of options to the perfect combination. $00.00 Download printable eBook (PDF) directly. Free for Supporting Members – become a member and email talk@alternativephotography.com. If you are already a member, email us and we’ll send it! $8.00 Download … Read more

Wet Cyanotype by Sonja Schaeffeler

Sonja Schaeffeler

Sonja Schaeffeler is a photographer and graphic designer venturing into the cyanotype process, experimenting with dry and wet cyanotype and toning. She is particularly drawn to plants and blossoms. From: Egg, Zurich, Switzerland. Shows: Botanical cyanotypes As a photographer, Sonja Schaeffeler is interested in all forms of photography and loves working with light. Professionally she made the switch from analogue to digital photography at the time but continued experimenting with … Read more

Calvin Grier Techinical Guide to Gum printing

Technical Guide to Gum Printing

by Calvin Grier If you have worked in the Gum bichromate process for some time and want to take it to the next level, this book could be for you. Buy “Technical Guide to Gum Printing” directly from Calvin Grier $49.95   for eBook – download direct.     Why buy it here? When you choose the option to buy directly from the author, the book is shipped by the author … Read more

Illustration from Fiona Robins book Bluest of Blues

Interview with Fiona Robinson author and illustrator of an Anna Atkins children’s book

I came across a beautifully illustrated book called The Bluest of Blues: Anna Atkins and the first book of photographs and naturally became intrigued. I wanted to know more and set up an interview with the creator Fiona Robinson. Photography and illustrations / Fiona Robinson Interviewer / Malin Fabbri Why a book on Anna Atkins? Fiona Robinson: I’m an author and illustrator of children’s picture books. Before creating The Bluest … Read more

Gunter Willhelm Gum bichromate

Günther Wilhelm

Günther Wilhelm has been working with historical photographic techniques for 20+ years. He shares his gum bichromates here but also works in a range of other processes such as cyanotype, salt, albumen and kallitype. From: Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany. Shows: Albumens, Cuprotypes and Gum bichromates. Günther Wilhelm, visual artist from Ludwigshafen on the Rhine, has been working with historical photographic techniques, the so-called “Edeldrucke”, which involve transferring a photography on … Read more

Cyanotype by Claire-louise Pitman

Claire-louise Pitman

Claire-louise Pitman, a fine art student, shows her experiments with different process such as cyanotypes. From: Somerset, UK. Shows: Cyanotypes, chemigram. Claire-louise Pitman was born in Somerset where she had her first major operation at just a few months old. As a child, she enjoyed forest school. Now she is closer to nature because of it. College is where she found photography in GCSE art. At college, she studied fine … Read more

Photography rebus nr 12

Photography rebus 12

Rebus! It was quite some time ago we did one of these, so let’s get the brain warmed up with an easy one. Can you figure out the word? Comment below (no cheating looking at the comments now!)

Vandyke by Alfonso de Castro

Alfonso de Castro

Alfonso de Castro, a Spanish professor shows argyrotypes, vandykes platinum & palladiums and a range of different processes in his gallery. From: Spain. Shows: Argyrotypes, Cyanotypes, Platinum and Palladium and Vandykes. Alfonso de Castro lives in Spain and is a professor at the University of Barcelona, where he has been teaching photography for many years. He is also naturally a photographer himself. Alfonso de Castro is especially interested in portraits, … Read more

Bromoil print Uncoated. Spots very evident.

Bromoil Process – Cure for White Spots

White spots have become an ever-increasing issue when making Bromoil prints, and this is not limited to one paper manufacturer. This is how you solve it. Writer and photography / Dave Symonds FRPS EFIAP Papers used for bromoil: Foma 112 & 113 & Other Papers The problem seems to have increased over recent years and is not limited to one manufacturer. For example, older manufactured papers worked fine with the … Read more

Anthotype Emulsions, Volume 1

Review of Anthotype Emulsions, Volume 1

Peter J. Blackburn reviews Anthotype Emulsions, Volume 1, and finds this springboard and resource alluring – and is eagerly awaiting the next volume.  Writer / Peter J. Blackburn If ever there was a medium that best captured the soft, the gentle, and the ethereal, anthotypes would be among the champions. And those delicate qualities are clearly on display in Malin Fabbri’s new text, Anthotype Emulsions, Volume 1, which continues to … Read more

Mordancage by Yaroslav Golubchyk

Yaroslav Golubchyk

Yaroslav Golubchyk is in search of “non-standard” techniques and has been working in alt. proc. for 15 years and shows a range of processes. From: Kyiv, Ukraine. Shows: Chemigrams, Cyanotypes, Gum bichromate, Gum over cyanotypes, Gumoils, Kallitype, Mordancage, Oilprints, and Photoetching. Yaroslav Golubchyk, was born in 1971 in Kyiv, Ukraine. He has been working for more than 15 years in different techniques of alternative photography and also tutoring art photography … Read more

Jennifer Booher's high-tech studio

Double-exposure cyanotypes

For several years now, Jennifer Booher has been making double-exposure cyanotype photograms of disposable plastic shopping bags. She calls the series “Extinction” and it began after her town banned plastic bags as a tongue-in-cheek typology imagining these bags as an endangered species. Writer and photography / Jennifer Steen Booher The process is pretty straightforward – I layer a plastic bag over a sheet of cyanotype paper on a hard board, … Read more

Resources for workshops – Experimental Photography in the Classroom

Innovative and affordable projects using light to teach many aspects of the curriculum including: Science, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Art, Photography, Recycling, Citizenship, History and Astronomy as well as many which prioritise interaction and communication. Link to Resources for workshops: https://www.pinholephotography.org/classroom-altphoto Contact (optional): justinquinnell@hotmail.com Instagram: @justin_quinnell Contact email for us: justinquinnell@hotmail.com

Vandyke by Susan Chainey

Susan Chainey

Susan Chainey has been working on and off in the darkroom with alternative photographic processes since the 70s. She currently works with Cyanotypes and Vandykes. From: Berkeley, California, USA. Shows: Cyanotypes and Vandykes. Susan Chainey taught English for over thirty years but her other work/love was photography (which she also taught occasionally). In the 1970’s she concentrated on portraits, using traditional film and darkroom processing techniques. At the same time, … Read more

Photograph of Anna Atkins from 1861, licensed by Creative Commons.

Anna Atkins

In 1843 Anna Atkins published the first book of photography made using the cyanotype process called British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. If you are a cyanotyper, you may also be interested in our tribute event to this true pioneer. Anna Children (maiden name of Anna Atkins) is born 16th of March 1799 in Tonbridge, Kent, UK, the daughter of John George Children (1777-1852) and Hester Anne Holwell (1777-1799). The house of … Read more