We revisited Slow Exposures this weekend. Slow Exposures is a “juried exhibition celebrating photography of the rural south” (from their website, here). I wrote about it after our first visit to the exhibit in 2018.
As is always the case when we spend the day with these photographs, we feel inspired.
Sometimes it’s the techniques used in processing the photos, sometimes it’s the way the photos are displayed, sometimes it’s the subject matter. This year, I was entranced by blue.
Two pairs of artists in the PopUp venues were working with cyanotypes. A cyanotype uses paper (or fabric or wood) that’s been treated with chemicals which are light sensitive. Laying an image on the paper, then exposing it to sunlight produces an image. Having done some of this myself with fabric, I’m intrigued by the new spin on things when other people do it.
Ashely Jones and Danea Males shared their work in the popup Some Kind of Blue. Their work included cyanotype images on paper and on wood.
You can see more of their work at https://www.daneamales.com and http://www.ashleymjones.com
In the Out of Town popup, Elizabeth Limbaugh and Tara Stallworth Lee had collaborated to share their interpretations of Alabama images. They had photographic diptychs, collages, and cyanotype prints.
Elizabeth is the one of the pair who works with the cyanotypes and she and I shared our love of the process and techniques we’ve used.
Elizabeth is on instagram @ewlfotografee
I loved learning about the encaustic process used with photos on our initial visit to Slow Exposures. This year another artist was exploring that process with vintage photos. I was intrigued since I love collecting old photos of known and unknown people to populate my stories in cloth.
So now I’m at home contemplating new ways to make and include cyanotypes and photographs in my textiles.
My earlier post about Slow Exposures is here.
Quilts I’ve made using cyanotypes are in these posts:
Annie Mae’s Lace is an older post with fewer photos, but here I describe the sun printing (cyanotype) processes I have used in detail.
And in Annie Mae’s Lace in the Garden, there are more photos of the same quilt.
