Sunrays and Blue Days

Sunrays and Blue Days are two projects that ran consecutively with people across the UK. The projects sought to create a feeling of connection for people during the strict lockdown of 2020-2021 by creating time sensitive art from their local, natural surroundings. Raising awareness of the impermanence of all things as well as some alternative photography processes in contrast to the digital age.

The Sunrays project focused on impermanence and took place on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. I employed the Anthotype printing process which was discovered by Mary Somerville in 1842. Using prepared paper using emulsion made from plants, which maintains its light sensitive properties, participants created contact prints of their choosing. The anthotype, unlike many photographic processes, cannot be permanently fixed meaning that the emulsion will continue to develop and eventually fade away to nothing if it is not kept out of the light. This was the integral part of the project. To embrace impermanence by creating, and to letting go.

The Blue Days project focused on the Cyanotypes printing process. Discovered by Sir John Herschel, the cyanotype was made famous by Anna Atkins when she created the first photo-book of her botanical studies of seaweed called Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, 1843. The Blue Days project took place on the world cyanotype day 2021 and participants were again invited to create their own contact prints using the blue-print process. This time the results would be permanent.