Midnight Summer Garden - Limited Edition of 1 Photograph by Christine So

Photography: Photogram on Paper.

Note: This print will be unavailable until August 31 while on exhibition at Webster Arts in St. Louis, Missouri.

I made this in the middle of a heat wave where I live. It was 97 degrees in my part of Northern California this week. The night sky is incredibly dark and inky and full of stars like this in a clear summer night if I step outside. These agapanthus flowers only bloom 3 months of the year during summer here, thus the title of the print. But you can enjoy looking this bit of summer even after it has long passed.

This was made using the wet cyanotype technique (versus when the chemicals on the paper are all dry) and was toned with acidic agents for the speckled texture.

Original cyanotype made with living plants. There are no other editions of each print as each image was composed laying the plants by hand and they have long since withered.

A cyanotype is a unique print made using a photographic process from the 1850s in which iron salts on paper react with sunlight resulting in a photogram or sunprint. Sun and water are the developers. Objects must be placed directly onto the chemically treated paper where their shadows or semi transparency create the image.

Each exposure happens in sunlight and the result once the print is washed and developed is a bit magical and hard to fully predict. That element of surprise each and every time is what attracts me to the process. Timing is everything. It’s printmaking without a printing press. It’s photography without a camera. Cyanotypes are like a cross between printmaking and x-rays.

Cyanotypes can be made once the light-sensitive chemicals are dry on the paper, or alternatively, exposed to light while the chemicals are still wet, resulting in a more liquid blurry effect. Objects can be taken away or added during exposure time to create different shades of blue. Other agents can be added to alter the traditional cyan blue image as well.

On 140 pound acid-free watercolor paper.