Summer Trees (24 x 18" Original Botanical Cyanotype on Paper)

(24 x 18" Cyanotype on Paper, unframed)

Although I spent 10 years as a traditional printmaker using a wood gouge, ink and a printing press my botanical cyanotypes are each one-of-a-kind slow cameraless photographs made outdoors using natural light. There is no lens and there is no etched plate or printing press.

This is a triple-exposure cyanotype, which means that each of the plants laid on the photo-sensitive paper was exposed for different carefully measured amounts of time, creating the varying shades of blue rather than a solid white silhouette against a dark blue background as in traditional cyanotypes.

Every botanical cyanotype I make is a unique monotype. There is no way to reproduce exactly the same effects even if I keep the same plant cuttings to use in a series before they wilt. There is no carved block nor etched copper plate—only the sun causing the photo chemicals to darken every second that it remains exposed to light.