FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY AND MORE BY JOHN HAILSTONE

blue

blue began in early 2011 when I discovered and was inspired by the cyanotypes  of Anna Atkins (1799-1871) who is recognised by some as the first female photographer.  The cyantotype process was invented in 1842 by Sir John Herschel, son of  astronomer William. Anna was a botanist who created cyanotypes of plant life and seaweeds in particular.  She placed her specimens directly onto paper coated with  a mildly photosensitive solution of ammonium iron citrate and potassium ferricyanide  that, when developed, formed an image in a blue dye known as Prussian Blue.  Anna’s cyanotypes were thus blue and white negatives made without a camera. Like Anna, I have created a series of images that are blue negatives of the natural  world with form predominating over narrative. Unlike Anna’s, these images have  been made on a digital camera, ‘developed’ in Photoshop and then printed in  long life pigment inks on acid-free paper. The source images were taken in  Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Pembrokeshire between August 2010  and March 2011.