clay county histories

Markus Krueger | Program Director  HCSCC

I love cyanotypes. They’re different than other photographs. The most obvious difference is instead of being black and white, cyanotypes are cyan blue and white. But for photographers, what really sets cyanotypes apart from the rest of the photographic processes is this: they’re incredibly cheap and easy to make. 

You only need a sunny day, paper, water, and two chemicals (ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide, sold as a kit for about $12 along with simple instructions) – no darkroom required. It’s easy enough that children often make cyanotypes in schools and daycares as a fun lesson in chemistry and art. 

The cyanotype process is one of the oldest photographic processes. It was invented by British chemist and astronomer Sir John Herschel, one of those impressive scientific geniuses of the Victorian Era. In 1842, just three years after the first photographic processes were invented, Sir Herschel came up with his own simpler and bluer method of using light to fix an image on paper. He dissolved certain salts of iron in water, painted it on paper and allowed it to dry. The chemicals stain the paper blue when exposed to UV light, but if you place, say, a leaf or a photographic negative of an image on top of the paper, the parts of the paper untouched by sunlight remain white. After a few minutes in the sun, the image is fixed by simply rinsing the chemicals off the paper with water.  

Botanist Anna Atkins, a family friend of Sir Herschel, thought this new invention could help scientists share accurate “drawings” of plant specimens without actually having to draw them. She simply placed real plants on top of the paper and put it in the sun. In October of 1843, Atkins published the world’s first book of photography – a collection of her work entitled British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. 

Probably the most famous application for cyanotypes is making architectural “blueprints.” Before photocopiers were invented, architects could give their work crews copies of building plans by exposing cyanotype paper to sunlight under a tracing of their original architectural drawings. Light shines through the white empty space of the drawing but is blocked by the lines drawn and words written on the original. Because of this, blueprints were originally negative copies – white lines on a blue background.

Cheap and easy cyanotypes rose in popularity in the 1880s among student and amateur photographers. Among the treasures preserved at the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County is the artwork of Annie Stein, the daughter of early pioneers who became a self-taught painter and semiprofessional photographer in Georgetown. Starting in the 1890s, Annie Stein made her own negative images on glass plates and printed the images out using several processes – black-and-white silver gelatin prints, sepia-colored albumen prints, as well as brilliant blue cyanotype prints. 

While the sun is shining, you might want to try it out yourself. Making cyanotypes is the easiest way of exploring the art, science, history, and fun of photographic printing.