Human Nature

Blue Aluminium Silhouette

*Blue Aluminium Silhouette*
Cyanotype on Bergger COT 320
Model: Amélie

When I shoot the Human Nature(s) project I am often overambitious and overstressed. I want so hard to get great stuff out of a session that I rush things and it often leads to mishaps. On that particular session, I wanted to try Rollei RPX25 to see if the super details of that film stock carried accross. Unfortunately I forgot to set the ISO on the camera at the proper level, so I underexposed by 2 steps. That created a silhouette effect on a lot of the results and some turned out to be happy accidents like this photo of Amélie. I like that it takes a while to figure out if this is a front or a back!

Standing Tall in Blue Mk2

*Standing Tall in Blue Mk2*
Cyanotype on Brockingford 300g HP White
Model: Anne

Standing Tall was one of my early cyanotype experiments, when I still couldn’t quite figure out why I was getting sustained yellows even after washing my cyanotypes. I liked the blue and yellow very much, but I think this cleaner version enhances the « japanese » feel of the print even better.

Blue Messiah

*Blue Messiah*
Cyanotype on Brockingford 300g HP White
Model: Ollie

In the way I initally envisaged the double exposures of this project, I was more focused on silhouettes and full body shots, but in the heat of the early studio sessions, I made some face portraits as well, and realised that these had a lot of potential as well. I particularly like this one where Ollie’s eyes shine and his beard and hair capture a lot of the texture of the leaves.

Fragmented Silhouette (in Blue)

*Fragmented Silhouette (in Blue)*
Cyanotype on Fabriano Artistico Grana Satinata HP Extra White
Model: Sarah

I feel like cyanotypes are a key way to express the core purpose of the Human Nature(s) project (to blend humans and natural textures). The first cyanotypes ever printed were plant textures and I feel there’s a natural connection between that process and the subject matter of this project. But I stuggled to get to a place where I’m comfortable with the looks and the replicability of the process. In particular, it proved surprisingly hard to get proper white backgrounds. I finally realised that it had more to do with the paper than with the process itself. This hot press Fabriano Artistico as well as the Bockenford HP White I’ve been using let me achieve true whites whereas other papers don’t. And on a print like this one, true white really delivers something special, I find.

Fertile Blue Hair

*Fertile Blue Hair*
Cyanotype on Bergger COT 320
Model: N.

Fertile Hair was by far the most popular photo of my Human Nature(s) project on Instagram (in fact the most popular photo I ever released, full stop). Once I’d sort of nailed down my cyanotype process I tried a print on Bergger COT 320 paper, with which I don’t achieve pure white backgrounds, but I think it works even better this way.

Blue Patterned Back

*Blue Patterned Back*
Cyanotype
Model: Lara

Sometime in September I finally got hold of some cyanotype solution which allowed me to start this project, but way back in May or June I’d actually order the new Bergger Cyanotype kit. It finally arrived and even though I have a little bit of the solution I found here left I decided to give the Bergger solution a try. It’s a different quality of blue, and the yellows do wash out entirely (although I have tried « expired » paper coated with the Bergger solution yet). This one is probably a tad overexposed: on this paper the « whites » tend to wash out a little bit more. Still I like the impact of this picture a lot.

Homo Floraleus in Blue

*Homo Floraleus in Blue*
Cyanotype
Model: Barth

I hope you’ll forgive the pig latin. This print is a milestone in the project. I finally figured out the very simple reason I was getting a mix of yellows and blues on all my prints: I prepared my cyanotype sheets well in advance and often used them days after I coated them. Despite keeping them in the dark, they would fog, hence the bichromatic results. The great thing about it is that I can now get pure blue prints, but I can also get the vert de gris tinted ones if I want to. This is a shot of Barth I hadn’t released yet. I really like it in a slightly creepy sort of way.

Blue Shefflera Man

*Blue Shefflera Man*
Cyanotype
Model: Fox

I finally nailed it. After weeks of trial and error to get my exposure times right and figure out the yellow cast I was getting, it was a comment on the Alternative Photography FB group that gave me the solution. I was not coating my paper with cyanotype solution and then exposing it immediately as it was drying. For convenience’s sake, I was preparing a batch of paper at night, and using them in the next few days or weeks. Turns out that explains the prevalence of this yellow cast. In the next couple of days I’ll show you the new results, but this cyanotype here is the first one where I have deliberately used old paper to get that copper toning. It’s all about replicable results.

Melville Blues

*Melville Blues*
Cyanotype
Model: Melville

Before I finally figured out why I was getting this yellow/green taint on all my cyanotypes, I did this one of my friend Melville. It’s faint (I washed it too much in the hope of getting rid of the taint) but I quite like it. Interestingly, I’ve done another attempt accidentaly inverting the negative so that he looks to the right, and it’s a lot more upbeat which says something about how visually coded our brains are…

Blue Briar King

*Blue Briar King*
Cyanotype
Model: Barth

In a desperate attempt to figure out why I couldn’t get rid of the yellows in my cyanotypes, I tried a different paper, which had the virtue of being larger, hence better framing options using the outer cyanotype, and the vice of being super light, hence the crumpling (I now dry it flat to avoid that. It takes longer, but it works better…) This one came out nice, with deep blues and while the yellow is still there, it gives the whole thing a coppery feel that I find quite pleasant.