The Connective Cyanotype

Alternative processes in photography have distinguished themselves in my mind as bold ways of letting out a message creatively while making the viewer's eyes intrigued and thirsty for more. However, I believe the purpose of art is for people to make their own connections whilst lost in the mystery of an artist's work. This is exactly what I wanted to accomplish while putting together a "triple" exposure and creating a cyanotype out of it. 

To put this image together, I took 3 photos using a Canon EOS Rebel XS with a 18-55mm lens, shutter speed of 1/100s and an aperture of f6.5. Firstly, I uploaded the 2 photos of the tree/sky and the photo of the grass. I made a double exposure of the two and  flattened the image. I then uploaded the 3rd photo of the girl with the dog and incorporated it into the photo with another double exposure. I think this is a very interesting and powerful image. While creating this image, I made some connections of my own. I thought about environmental issues. The little girl covering the dogs eyes  and the dog showing frustration, anger and most of all... vulnerability, to the human's actions. I made the background images of nature, specifically grass and trees. I exaggerated the size of the grass to imitate how small we actually are in comparison to the earth. I think the grass puts the entire thing into perspective... no matter what we do to nature, it will always loom over us with a colossal force. 

The second step to completing this process was inverting the image and printing it onto an acetate. 

I then painted the appropriate chemicals onto a sheet of paper and after it dried, I sandwiched the paper and the acetate in between two pieces of plexiglass. Since it was an extremely overcast day, I left the plexiglass sandwich outside for about 45 minutes. I brought it inside and put the paper into a container of 1000 mL of water and 50 mL of hydrogen peroxide (as photographed above). I rubbed off the yellow colour and then hung the cyanotype up to dry. This was my third attempt and it proved to be successful... third times a charm! 

I am very happy with the way my cyanotype turned out. I believe it contributes to my main "message" of keeping mystery in a photograph for the viewer to make connections for themselves to interpret what it means for them personally. I believe this cyanotype enhanced my image in the way I wanted to all along; the way it leaves out certain parts of the original photograph brings mystery and self discovery the main objective in the photo. I think that the eerie grass shapes around the child, and the outline of the one eye really creates mystery and starts to make connections/feelings within the viewers mind.