*Blue Mask*
Cyanotype on Bockingford 300gsm Hot Press
Model: Claudia
Plant Texture: ?
I struggled to transfer this image to cyanotype. The texture in the highlights is so faint that I kept getting prints where the right side of Claudia’s face was near-white. Finally after several attempts, shifting papers and adjusting exposure times I got what I wanted. I find this picture at the same time beautiful and disturbing, especially in this age of masking…
*Blue Caryatids*
Cyanotype on Bockingford 300gsm Hot Press
Model: M.
Plant Texture: ?
Another experiment with double digital negatives reversed. I tryly love how this one came out. the original composition was a bit too lopsided, especially since the texture didn’t come out as strongly as expected in the « empty » side of the frame. The quasi symetry here not only fills in the frame but magnifies the portrait of M.
*Wistful Blues*
Cyanotype on Bockingford 300gsm Hot Press
Model: Lara
Texture: ?
This is a cyanotype of one of my favourite photos of the plant texture double exposure project… that I never showed before. The reason is that while I love the photograph, I always felt it never quite fit with the rest of the project photos. The texture is much more chaotic, and therefore isn’t really legible. But at the same time, it feel like the texture drapes the model, which I love.
*Two-headed blue faun*
Cyanotype on Fabriano Artistico 300gsm, HP, Extra White
Model : Fox
Texture : ?
Technically this is a double exposure of a double exposure. In my early experiments with cyanotypes, I realised that the digital negatives printed at my local printers were not dense enough, so I got two made of each negative so I could superimpose them. Last week I decided to try out some of them in reverse, using both negatives but with one of them flipped. I got some interesting results including this two headed Fox.
*Blue Stripes*
Cyanotype on Fabriano Artistico 300gsm, HP, Extra White
Model : Jelle
Texture : Palm Leaf
Most of the textures I use for this project are one way or another messy. More structured textures can work, but usually only on relatively featureless backs. Here Jelle’s back is the perfect smooth surface for the palm leaf’s details to bloom.
*Blue Arthur*
Cyanotype on Fabriano Artistico 300gsm, HP, Extra White
Arthur Simon is a versatile and talented trumpet player who currently plays with (amongst other things I’m sure) Hakim Hamadouche in a world/jazz kind of blend. The first time I heard him play was as a guest at a CQMD gig, and he ripped it. I really like how the tones of this photo translated to the cyanotype process.
*Blue Bone*
Cyanotype on Fabriano Artistico 300gsm, HP, Extra White
Bigre! is probably my favourite contemporary Big Band. These guys are from Lyon and blend all kinds of influences, not only from jazz but from funk, rock, punk, afro-cuban, chanson française, etc. I saw them live only once, in Paris and it was one of the greatest gigs of my life. This is trombonist Sylvain Thomas doing his thing.
*Blue Ron*
Cyanotype on Fabriano Artistico 300gsm, HP, Extra White
This shot is a little more analog than the others in the series in that the initial photo was made on film. In all fairness, when I shot concerts (and, I hope, when I can do so again) I did most of it on digital. The conditions in (mostly) badly lit jazz clubs make shooting on film really tricky, and I have nothing but admiration for all those concert photographers from the heyday of jazz. But this one of soul-blues singer Ron Smyth and it’s one of the few concert shots I have that I think feel truly universal. My wife really doesn’t like this huge negative space and the lack of detail, but that’s exactly what I love about this cyanotype print.
*Angelo in Blue*
Cyanotype on Fabriano Artistico 300gsm, HP, Extra White
Angelo Moore is one of those larger than life figures that can only exist in music, I feel. He’s most famous as the founder of Fishbone, but he’s also a brilliant improviser. He and the French band CQMD initiated a short term project called Madd Vibes that had Angelo sing and play all kinds of instruments from the theremin to the bass saxophone. And they all wore these old prison overalls, which pleased the photographer in me.
*Stanley in Blue*
Cyanotype on Fabirano Artistico 300gsm, HP, Extra White
This photo of Stanley Clarke taken at a concert in Paris in 2012 is part of a new project entitled « Bluer than Blues » where I revisit some of my favourite jazz and blues photographs in cyanotype prints. What you lose in detail (in my opinion) is more than compensated by the depth the dark blues convey to the images.
Recent Comments