2 September, 2020
Adding Color to Cyanotype – By John Isner
For me, the print has always been the goal of photography. A few years ago I discovered alternative process printing and, after trying a handful of historical processes, settled...
John Isner
I have been taking photographs for as long as I can remember. Although I made the transition from film to digital in the early 2000's, I never lost my love for analog film, and have continued to shoot medium format from time to time. In 2017, I was introduced to alternative process photography at a local Community College. Alt process photography struck me as having the ideal balance between the analog and digital worlds. Since early 2018, I have been printing exclusively in cyanotype from high-quality digital negatives. In 2019, I began experimenting with different ways to add color to cyanotype. For the last year, I have been printing exclusively with a process which I developed, which I call Cyanotype over Pigment Ink.
Many of my prints have been accepted by juried exhibitions in Arizona and New Mexico, including a prestigious national show in Santa Fe, “The Historic Photograph.” I work in series of 10-12 prints. A series typically takes six months to complete and entails many visits to the site. I have done architectural series on Kitt Peak, Biosphere 2, several modern housing developments in Tucson, and the award-winning Ventana Vista Elementary School in the Catalina Foothills of Tucson. As a budding artist, my goal for 2021 is to have one of my complete series shown in a gallery.
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