• These cyanotypes are interesting because of their striking blue tones and how they blend organic shapes like plants with human figures and text, creating an ethereal, dreamlike effect. Their uniqueness comes from the bold contrast between light and dark areas, achieved through a hands-on chemical process.

What compositional techniques can you see the artists using?

• The artists use strong compositional techniques, such as layering (combining figures with plants), repetition (text forming facial features), and negative space, to guide the eye through the images and add depth and movement.

How is this technique different from any other types of photography you have done this year?

• This technique differs from digital photography because it’s a manual, analogue process that uses UV light to create images directly onto surfaces, with no camera involved. This makes it more experimental and unpredictable, and also, I need to use chemicals in this unit, and it will not be easy to produce the final work.

What different skills do you think you might need to create a cyanotype?

• To create a cyanotype, I would need skills in preparing and coating paper with chemicals, arranging objects for photograms, and carefully timing UV light exposure, combining both artistic composition and scientific precision.

What do you already know, and what do you need to know?

• I already know that cyanotypes use a chemical reaction to produce the iconic blue prints, but I need to learn how to mix the chemicals safely, control the exposure time, and manipulate the final tones and textures for creative effects.

I think I rinsed off too much water, so some parts have some water marks, and it looks bad. I need to consider the amount of water and the chemicals to make a better cyanotype paper. Also, I can't see clearly what objects I've used, so later, I will use no more than 4 objects (2 objects were connected, and the paper seems to show there are 3 objects). Furthermore, I will need more bright sunlight to make the bright part clearer and smoother. The blue colors are not equally painted, so it will be really important to regulate the amount of water and chemicals I use for the cyanotype paper.

Reflection: As in the image, the color changed to blue because it was quite exposed to the light for more than 5 minutes. I think I pretty much prepped my paper with an equal amount of chemicals. I added some curvy patterns to try to find that prepping the whole paper with chemicals or having a pattern is a better choice. I need to compare with my final collage paper.