H Lisa Solon

The luscious Prussian blue of cyanotypes is what first captured me. In twenty years of working almost exclusively with them, I've come to appreciate the process in all of its stages and permutations. I make cyanotypes on watercolor paper, fabric, concrete, tiles, plaster, printed paper, maps and handmade mulberry paper. I print directly from various plants, objects, 35 mm negatives, medium format negatives, digital negatives and large sized negatives I make in my darkroom.

This portfolio of open edition prints is made from my original cyanotypes and are part of a continuing project using tropical plants from Jamaica, West Indies. Although I was born in Brooklyn, it is the endless summer of the tropics which motivates my art.

Cyanotypes were one of photography’s earliest processes. In the simplest case, a piece of paper is coated in a dimly lit room with a combination of light sensitive chemicals. A negative, plant or object is placed on top of the dried sheet of paper and then together they are exposed to sunlight. The "negative" is removed, the sheet of paper washed and when dry it is finished. The process was once commonly used to make architectural blueprints and was famously used by Anna Atkins to create the first ...

Maine Photographic Workshops, 1996
International Center of Photography (NYC), 1991-1994, 1999
New York University, Masters of Business Administration, 1985
New York University, Bachelor of the Arts, 1981

Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2011 Harmony Hall, Tower Isle, Jamaica
2003 Safe-T-Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2000 Gallery Of South Orange, South Orange, NJ
1999 Passaic County Community College, Paterson, NJ
1998 Soho Photo, New York, NY
Warner-Lambert Headquarters, Morris Plains, NJ
1997 Donnell Library Center, New York, NY
1996 Johnson & Johnson Headquarters, New Brunswick, NJ
Drew University, Media Research Center Gallery, Madison, NJ
Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY
1995 Montclair State University, Gallery One, Upper Montclair, NJ
Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ
1994 The Fleetwood Museum of Art & Photographica, North Plainfield, NJ

National Biennials:
2008, 2010, 2014 Jamaica National Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica

Selected Group Exhibitions:
2010 DumboFest, Brooklyn, NY
2007 STG V (5th Anniversary Show), Safe-T-Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2005 Organic, Safe-T-Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Important Papers, Walker-Kornbluth Gallery, Fair Lawn, NJ
2004 Metro Show, City Without Walls, Newark, NJ
Synopsis @ 10, Pierro Gallery of South Orange, South Orange, NJ
The Face in the Mirror, The Arts Guild of Rahway, Rahway, NJ
Photographing New Jersey, Walker-Kornbluth Gallery, Fair Lawn, NJ
2003 Newark Museum, A...