Round the Bend

By Christine So

Unlike my botanical cyanotypes which are cameraless sun prints made using living plants rather than photo negatives, these are photographs taken with a camera that were then printed in sunlight using a photo negative. The term "contact photo" in analog photography refers to the fact that the large negative (as large as the hand-stained photo paper and the final photo itself) is placed directly against the coated paper while it's being exposed to light rather than projecting light through a small photo negative onto paper at a distance. While the photographic image is the same in the prints of multiple editions, the hand-painted edges of where the photo chemicals were brushed onto the paper is unique from print to print.