Back in 2016 I took a two-day class in creating cyanotype and Van Dyke brown prints. In the class we learned the whole process, from coating the paper to creating negatives from photographs to cursing the clouds interfering with the sun, and, eventually to seeing the finished results. I really enjoyed the class, and still love seeing cyanotypes created by professional artists and amateurs alike.
I’ve been playing with inexpensive sunprint paper off and on over the years. Sunprint paper is light sensitive paper already coated with the right chemicals that, when exposed to sunlight and then rinsed under water, create cyanotype images. I’ve mostly used the process to memorialize little bits of nature — I especially love how ferns and wispy grasses look in cyanotype.
But it dawned on me that I have a small collection of glass plate negatives of early 20th century family members, and my library has a larger collection of them, many of which we don’t have printed photographs for. Unlike my 2016 class where we had to create our own negatives, these glass plates are already negative, and can simply be placed on the sunprint paper to reveal the image. And the beauty is that unlike small film negatives, these glass plates are all between 3×5 to 5×7, resulting in a perfectly sized image without needing an enlarger.
The top one, exposed for 10 minutes, was better but probably could have used more time.
This was such an enjoyable learning process for me — the perfect activity for a sunny October Saturday. I learned a few things and couldn’t quite explain others. I found that despite the timing instructions on the sunprint paper package (minimal at best) that almost all of the images benefitted from a longer sun exposure time. I had one photograph that refused to expose at all –even though it looked promising, it came out bright white every time. A more experienced film photographer could probably tell me why, but I will keep trying until I get it just right.
Sunprint paper is very inexpensive, so your failures won’t feel like you’ve wasted much money. The package of 100 I purchased even came with heavy plastic sleeves, so if you are using regular negatives instead of glass, they won’t get blown away by the breeze or lift off the paper.
Give it a try! And let me know how it goes.
See you soon.
–lucy
I have never actually seen a glass plate negative, and I am in awe that these are of your family members. What a wonderful treasure.
Oh and now I want to try these! They are all so nostalgic!