Author: Stella

A pioneer of 19th-century Western landscape photography, Carleton E. Watkins spent most of his life looking at the world through the lens of his camera. He had a preference for landcape photography and especially favoured photographing Yosemite. His work had a profound imact on the American people and his documentation and passion in preserving nature and had a part to play in the start of American Enviromentalism(1). His work actually helped push important enviromentalist ideals and influenced President Lincoln to sign in 1864 banning development in the valley, which led to the establishment of the national-parks system(2).

I love the way he composed his shots and how although the places he shot are untouched by humans, he places the camera in a way which allows for the light to spill through nicely, while also capturing impressive detail

Watkins often built his own custom cameras and was the first person to use a ‘mammoth plate’, which is a photographic plate that is usually 18 x 21 inches, but may vary in size from 15 by 18 inches to 22 by 25 inches(3). The photo above was used with a mammoth plate.

Although I don’t plan to do large scale landscape photography like Watkins, I still found the research on him very helpul while also being extremely inspiring. This was because I felt that his work highlighted the firm place photography has in creating change and capturing moments. It reminded me that this ‘capturing of moments’ has the ability to inspire and enourage change onwards (such was the case with the American laws made in the Lincoln era).

Till next time,

SR

Sources:

1. Carleton Watkins. (2022, August 27). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carleton_WatkinsCopy
2. SAAM Carleton Watkins – https://americanart.si.edu/artist/carleton-e-watkins-5251
3. Mammoth plate. (2022, May 8). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammoth_plate

On Tuesday I was finally able to get amongst the cyanotype printing and left the session with two pieces that I’m quite happy with. I found craete cyanotyope prints was much easier than I thought, mostly due to the shortage of time in the process as there is a machine which can expose the images quickly. This means (similarly to many of the videos I watched about cyanotypes), I didn’t have to leave my canotypes in the sun to become exposed, which can be time-consuming and tempremental due to changing weather patterns and obstacles etc.

I decided to sew pieces of fabric which I had also used for my photograms onto my cyanotype. I sew pieces of string and let them hang off the canvas, mimicking roots. White was chosen as it would best stand out from the blue and blue was used as well so the roots would continue to stand out on the white wall.

I found with these first attempts that there was not much variation in tone compared to examples I had seen. I left my pieces in the bath for just over 10 minutes as recommended, however my pieces had little lighter areas. Although, you can see some white-ish areas lining the scratches in my second piece, highlighted in the close up above.

I believe that the outcome was like this due to my decision to use old pre painted cyanotype papers, which apparently often create more experimental outcomes and may need longer water bath submersion depending on amount of chemical painted, material used and length of time left to dry.

Till next time,

SR

The next photographing method we experimented with was photograms, which are achieved by placing items, mostly plants in our case, on photosensitive paper and then exposing the paper to a set level and length of exposure. This method holds the same core principles as pinhole photography.

(After the picture was taken I took some of the left side off for better composition)

Having recognised the simplicity of the process through seeing the outcome of my first attempt, I went ahead to play more with this exciting art form.

I started to think in greater depth planning composition and undergoing experiments in the dark room, eager to see how the setting of the harshness of the light exposure and the length of it affected the image and different subjects/objects [plants in this situation].

Mid-journey visit home I came across some weeds and thought they might come in use, so I put them in my bag and let them tumble around for the day, letting them dry out a bit.

Around about here in my progress in photography, I had my 1 on 1 talk with Dieneke. We discussed my works and she encouraged me to explore further my interest in adding textures, found materials and three-dimensional elements to my work. This included the consideration of fabrics and sewing things, including the physical photos, together. She also reminded me of the importance of scanning my work, which I have now done with the studio scanner. In future, I plan to use a higher-quality scanner.

Mindmapping what kind of ideas I wanted to explore while doing photography, I thought about messing around with differing transparencies and being inspired by a classmate’s use of ‘double exposure’.

For reference, here’s my list of potential future photography endeavours:

• Double Exposure (Photograms)
• Cyanotypes, especially on fabrics
• Multiple-holed pinhole cameras
• Playing around with digital cameras
• Scanning images for cyanotypes
• Colour!
• Looking into this type of ‘x ray’ look – https://hyperallergic.com/269028/a-radiologists-x-ray-photographs-of-flowers-from-the-1930s/ + looking into photographer Dr. Dain L. Tasker in particular
• “Ombre chemical Exposure?”Playing around
• Consider composition deeper (ie. symmetry, mirror effect or mid-movement flat lay photograms?)
• Screen printing

In addition, here’s a list of potential ideas and themes I may pursuit in photography:

• Royalty, royal crests
• Family crests, the symmetry
• Composing native plants in a way which mimics royal crests. Timely show of arms, a protest against the negative impact of colonisation by GB towards Aotearoa, New Zealand. A call to taking back our heritage, our own unique culture taking on the patterns of GB royal colonial crests
• Displaying nature in a research/scientific way – anatomical almost
• Placement of nature/plants in a way that looks like it’s in/mid-movement

Recently I went to the AUT fashion department and scavenged their scrap bins for material I could play with in the continuation of my experiments with photograms. Below are some of the outcomes of that experimentation:

(will likely include plants, fabric and multiple exposures)

These last two were left in the water bath for probably an excessive amount of time, however, due to cross-contamination of chemicals left a unique colouring which I find beautiful.

I am fond of the three dimensional aspect this photo has.

I like how the piece of fabric looks similar to that which was viewed from a microscope.

I’ve found I particularly enjoy incorporating three-dimensional aspects into my work, perhaps due to my love for sculpture. I’m excited to see what else I create.

Till next time,

SR