Herbarium and Sea Life: Contact Prints

 My name is Elizabeth Dow and I am in the Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts with a focus in photography. I also work as an Admin Assistant in the Faculty of MAP and have a previous Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Regina in Theatre. 

I have enjoyed learning the cyanotype process and the skills for smooth coverage with the chemicals and then being able to play around with the brushstrokes visible on the paper. This is a look that decided I liked more than the clean like of taped borders. 

I also experimented with adding more pieces to my prints throughout the exposure process to create depth in my prints and have gotten some interesting images through that process. 

For this installation we worked together with Dr. Mel Hart and the Faculty of Science to pick samples from the George F. Ledingham Herbarium and sea creatures from the Biology Department to use to make our contact prints.  I was drawn to the way that the sea creatures lent themselves to the cyanotype process as they just seemed to work well on the blue.

We have also worked with the process of toning our cyanotypes to different shades and colours using a variety of natural materials, including teas, barks and wine tannins.  This is a process that interested me for the ability to experiment and I plan to delve into this more as I move forward. I have already made my own green tea toner which I used for a print for this installation.

 This course has been much different than the other photography classes I have taken with Risa so far, but the hands on and playful aspect of it has been amazing. Not to mention getting to do it with so many people that I have worked with from the start of my photography classes.