Fall Vandyke Printing

{Top: mine and Kitch's vandykes. Bottom: various inspiring

photograms found online, couldn't find artists names,

thank you unknowns}

Thought I would combine a couple of my favorite things

and do a fun fall project. I loved my alternative processes

class at BYU, the organic feel of all the prints, the and

artistic science of it all, so fun. I ordered all my chemicals

from here... Inspired by botanical photograms I decided

to use the vandyke emulsion on heavy water color paper

and my collection fall leaves. Once sensitized and arranged

under glass the prints expose under UV rays. We used

the sun. Then they are developed in a series of baths.

It was great to use my darkroom again.....guilty

confession: the last time I used it was for my senior show.

They turned out fun, I was hoping for more texture within

the leaves, veins and stems, so they would look more like

photographs rather than paintings, but I liked what we got.

Maybe next time I can use black lights instead of the

unpredictable sun and calculate the exact exposures for

the look I want. But I do now have a great appreciation

for the early photographers that discovered processes

like these in their quest to invent the photography we

enjoy today. Thanks Kitch for experimenting with me.

The Vandykes that I created in school look great hanging

on the brown walls of my bathroom downstairs. My theme

for that portfolio was also botanical prints but I shot 4x5

film that I enlarged using ortholitho film to get 8x10

negatives to use in contact printing. I still need to get

the artichokes framed and hung, its down somewhere

on the house project to-do list.