This is a final mini post i would like to make dedicated to the ideas I had whilst doing this project. Usually, from mistakes I made, I took them as a chance to mess around with some of the prints.
One of my first prints came out absolutely wrong. It was lifting around the image and just peeling away. Something about this seemed really fun, though, considering the pose of the person inside the frame! It really made me feel like they were trapped in this crumbling mirror.
So I took this as a chance to experiment a little. I used a wet paper towel and gently wiped away the gelatin that was surrounding the subject. I thought this came out very fun. The blues made the image seem ghostly like they're trapped in the mirror. Not something I think would be applicable for this project but something I would love to mess about with and take photos with the intention to make mirrors like thisn instead of happy accidents!
Another attempt with playing with my work was partially destroying destroying them. In the top image I ran the image under a hot tap for a brief while before it destroyed the full image.
In the second one, the print had come out wrong was full of too many blemishes, and the face was barely visible unless it was at the right angle. So I decided to try and make it a bit more uneasy , remove the face, and lightly wash some of the image away. I don't think either of these would make for a final image but I would be interested in getting digital scans of prints like this, I think it could make for an interesting poster with some graphic design elements to compliment them and then further printed onto paper of some sort.
In here, i will talk about how I felt the project has gone, things I enjoyed about it and what I would do differently.
So, overall, I am happy with the project. I think the biggest thing that has let me down, however, is the lack of time I allocated to this project. I had a good few months of total burnout that I felt absolutely unable to work on absolutely anything for uni and the stress of not doing any work fed back into me feeling paradised and unable to do anything. I did finally have to pull myself out of this rut but I really wish I had managed it sooner as I would have loved to have done my original idea or for this to have been a bigger project. Another thing that did really hold me back, though, was the cost. I bought the cheapest mirrors I could find for this project, and they were all the same from flying tiger for £5. Charity shops didn't have any mirrors when I went looking, unfortunately, but again, if I had given myself more time, I might have found the mirrors i had wanted. I think a variety of mirrors would have made the project more visually appealing on top of if I had more of them. More mirrors mean more portraits. More portraits mean more work to be looked at. The acetate prints themselves were also really expensive considering. They were £40 for 6, so on top of that, the mirrors and all the utensils i needed to create the mixture i had spent nearly £150. I know in the grand scheme of the world that £150 isn't a whole lot, but I'm not really able to afford typical life at the moment, but that's a whole other circumstance that's not too relevant to this project.
Things that did work for me though is the process, I really really enjoyed teaching myself a new skill to have under my belt. Sure, I haven't mastered the skill yet, but it's now something I'm incredibly confident in doing again, and i plan to do it again for the previous project I had planned and hopefully others. I think it's been really nice working with images provided by friends it's a way that makes the project collaborative, and i always enjoy when the work when other people are involved even slightly.
The project, amongst others this year, has also taught me not to be so precious about my work. There's something about literally washing away a print and just trying again that is very cathartic that I'm not able to typically do. You can delete a file from your computer and then upload the file back on, I guess, but it's not the same as physically just rinsing the image myself in the sink.
I know i complained about not having enough mirrors and wishing I had more to do with but a big positive that did come from the smaller mirrors was that they were very accessible as a way to teach myself the process without causing too much of a mess. The floors in my flat didn't constantly get big blue marks all over but I can only imagine that'd be exacerbated with even bigger mirrors and I would have had to use like my bath to wash the mirrors.
A final thought, i guess, is that i really do hope to attempt the original idea. I shelf far too many ideas, and as much as I try to tailor my assessments around what I would like to do, none of the projects feel like mine by the end of it whereas the rare occasion when I've done something in my own time, for myself the work has turned out better than I could have hoped and the sense of accomplishment sits with me for a bit longer. When it comes to assessment time, I think I really struggle to fully open up and get the work done. This honestly might be what causes burnout, but I'm really hoping that in my 4th year, I'm able to apply myself better and to create work that I really feel proud of and manifesting far less burnout for myself next year.
In this post, I plan to share the resources I used to help me develop my workflow and process. Youtube videos, online posts etc.
This video above was particularly helpful as I think he was the only person who i came across who was using a premade cyanotype mixture rather than one that someone had made themselves and I found this encouraging because I wasn't sure if I was able to make my own mix. He was also just working in an environment that just seemed more realistic as I don't really have a big lab at home or my own studio. There is the college space, but I'm more comfortable working in a familiar space.
This video is the one that goes the most in depth into the process and teaches me nearly everything I know about it. If I did have to make my own cyanotype mixture, this is the video I'd have used as he's just incredibly clear and concise with every step.
I did come across this video. It is, unfortunately, mostly AI slop but I guess it goes over some interesting applications that you could do for glass prints.
Again one of the many videos I had watched just to see other people's workflows to give me the confidence to attempt it myself.
This video I've watched a few times just to see what interests me. Toning a cyanotype is something I'd love to attempt in the future.
Finally, I also took to reddit and asked if anyone had advice. Expecting absolutely nothing, I got incredible feedback from many people on how the process should go. I'll link the actual form below.
Overall, I think i managed to incorporate most of these sources into my workflow. I didn't take just from one of them i think that most of them at the very least I found very encouraging but the one by Joseph J McAllister and Jacob C arts and the reddit post were the most insightful in terms of approaching the technique.
Initially, for this project, I had planned to shoot a mirror point of view from people's homes and then do cyanotype print onto mirrors. The idea was to capture the person's personality and environment through the mirror to make it like a portal into their lives. The reason I want to use mirrors is that they have deep roots in art. People like Claude Cahun, who has work using mirrors and self-portraits to explore gender identity. Carrie Mae Weems "Not Manet's Type, 2010" is also a series of images i found inspiring for this idea, that project was more focused on critiquing the male gaze of black woman in art history however. So, not necessarily the message behind her project because that's not a subject for me to explore, but it doesn't mean I can't feel inspired by how she shot this work.
Claude Cahun
Unfortunately, however. Life got a bit in the way, so I have had to shelf this idea for a project for the time being and have had to adapt my idea a bit as the deadlines were building up and I was feeling stuck. I brought in my one test print I had done into class as a proof of concept and went over my idea but also mentioned I hadn't had a chance to shoot anything and that I was feeling overwhelmed and hadn't got much work done. During this class crit, we talked about how I might be able to adapt the idea. The new plan that I had landed on was to ask people I know for pictures of themselves that they feel like they look good in, either selfies or photos taken by someone else as long as it was a picture of them picked by them. The idea for me is to use these images and to put them into mirrors. The message is still about identity and a celebration of one's self. We are told narcism is a bad thing, but i feel like this isn't entirely true as it's very important to appreciate yourself in life. Yes, narcissists absolutely exist, and there are people who love themselves far too much. I'm not saying these things don't happen, but for this project, I'm interested in exploring the healthy appreciation of one's self. Photos that aren't too serious. One's that you might just like how you look in, one that you might be totally unserious and just wanted a silly picture or maybe an image from a moment that you felt proud of accomplished in.
For the new idea, the artists I had looked at previously are still relevant! I also remembered the work of Vivian Maier when trying to adapt my work. She had a very fun, casual approach to capturing images of herself in mirrors and reflections. Her work is the perfect example of what I'm interested in, actually. Her work is very much her very interested in her own form as a person and clearly was fascinated with taking photos of herself but also these photos weren't for the general public, she took them all for herself and her photography, to me, really pushes to redefine what narcism really is especially in this modern era of social media were people are constantly taking pictures of themselves and sharing them online more often for engagement from others more than as a way to appreciate yourself.
Vivian Maier
As for the medium I want to use, being gelatine Cyanotype, im partly doing this to push myself to try something new as I have been doing with most of my projects this year, it's also a progression from maybe the first project I done this year for the cameraless project. This year has also really taught me to take a step back from digital photography as it's really not been inspiring or enjoyable for me lately, but I have absolutely fallen in love with how tactile physical art is as someone who has nearly exclusively worked with digital mediums. I'm also incredibly interested by collodion wet plate work, but it's very expensive to get into, and I see this as a way to practice some of the skills I need for that process while not breaking the bank.
In terms of people to look, Caitlin Eadie, a previous student at the city of glasgow, has also used the method of cyanotype gelatin prints in the project called "HER" i managed to see an exhibition of this project at street level photoworks just before it ended.
I have always wanted to explore cyanotype and to try using it on other surfaces, and seeing Caitlins work in person really did push me to try it out for myself.
Here is where I will be documenting mistakes I've made along the way and how I went around them.
Over Pouring!
A mistake I made many times in the early stages was pouring on the wrong part of the mirror, and when it came to trying to spread the mix around the mirror, it would leave gaps. What I tried to do to compensate for this was to pour more onto those spots and let the overflow fall back into the beaker that it came from at a corner. This wasn't always successful, however, and when drying some of the mixture would bulk up in a corner of the mirror and be much thicker than the rest of the mirror making it very unbalanced, much darker in those spots and require longer exposure times to get an image in those parts. I also noticed that even when trying to see if these mirrors were still viable, in the washing stage, the emulsion would start to peel and flake, losing its integrity. This left behind fun and interesting textures that did inspire me to think of how to do this on purpose but it wasn't right for this project.
Results would look similar to this at times.
STORING IN THE FRIDGE
I tried storing a couple mirrors in the fridge while waiting on the emulsion to dry as this is how gelatin is typically treated and is what people recommend to spread up the process. When checking on the emulsions a few hours later I had noticed that it had started to freeze. When this would defrost it would damage the emulsion I think from the water? I ended up making new emulsions for them as they were not long in the fridge and I had more of the stuff ready to go.
Oh, one i nearly forgot was that one of the mirrors must have been slightly popped out of place when I purchased it. I didn't realise this till I got home, I presumed it would be easy to push back into place, but I ended up breaking the corner of the mirror. It's a shame, but not the biggest problem in the world, I decided to use the image that I felt fit it the most, but it wasn't an intentional break and I don't mean for it to add any more meaning to the work.
I will have a separate post for the recourses I have used to teach myself about this process. In this post, it will be looking at how I've used these resources and how I've got on with doing it myself, mistakes and issues I found along the way and how I got around them.
The first step is just getting a table spoon of non flavoured gelatin and mixing it with 100ml of COLD water. The water needs to be cold so as to make the gelatin bloom to let it hydrate properly to avoid it clumping together. When adding the gelatin, I didn't add it all at once. What I did was I shook the spoon gently as I stirred the pot. I did this to avoid the gelatin clumping together, making for an even mixture.
After this, I took my graduated cylinder and put a paper coffee filter over the top, and poured the gelatin mix in. I use the paper filters to remove any potential debris in the mix that could have come from the sachet I ripped open or general dust.
I then take my jacquard cyanotype kit and mix 5ml from bottle A and another 5ml from bottle B and put them into a beaker.
Following the advice I got online, I took the cyanotype mixture and mixed it with 25ml of the gelatin mix and stirred this briefly for about 5 minutes. Once I'm happy with the mix i add it to a beaker.
From here, I am able to store the mixture for future use or I can start the next stage of pouring onto the mirrors.
When storing the mixture either at this stage or if i have left over, it will solidify. This is okay, all I need to do is fill a pot with hot water from the tap and put the beaker or whatver its being stored in into the hot water just to heat it back up turning it back into a liquid. Just need to make sure no water gets into the beaker otherwise it will dilute and ruin the mixture.
Before pouring the mixture onto the mirrors, I like to make sure they are as clean as possible. I tried wiping them down with glass cleaner and kitchen roll, and I also tried using dust cloths, but I feel like these both ended up leaving debris and streaks on the mirrors. The best method I'd found with what I had at hand was just giving the mirrors a quick rinse under the water and leaving them to dry near a window it only took a few minutes and would leave the mirror spotless.
At the point of pouring onto the mirrors, after trial and error and a bit of research, I found that pouring from the centre of the mirror and eyeballing the amount was the best way to go. You start from the centre, and then you tilt the mirror to get the mixture up to the top left corner, top right, bottom right then bottom left, and let the excess fall back into the beaker.
From here, if the pouring didn't go well, it's very easy to rinse the mirror and try again, or if it did go well, we move on to the next step!
From here, I moved the mirrors I'd poured onto straight into a cupboard in my hallway as it's as light proof as it's going to get in my flat as the mirrors are now technically light sensitive but nowhere near as sensitive as typical film. It's fairly cool in the cupboard, helping the drying process. I kept them in little plastic trays flat on their back onto the kitchen roll just to help absorb any of the moisture from the wood. It takes several hours for the mirrors to dry.
I found I could also store the mirrors in my fridge to speed up the process of them solidifying significantly, but a few times I tried this, they started to freeze, and I was worried about the extra moisture from this when it would thaw and also concerned about the mirrors shattering so I tended to avoid this.
Now that the mirrors are dry, we are now on the printing stage! For this, all that's required is to choose a negative line, line it up on the mirror, once happy place a glass plate on top of the mirror. We do this to make sure there's no gap at all between the mirror and the negitive. Otherwise, the image would come out blurry. Once I was happy, I would turn on my UV Lamp. I found after trial and error, the best exposure time was between 15 and 20 minutes for the UV lamp I had at hand.
Once exposed, i turn the lamp off and immediately place the mirror into a plastic tray that's filled with cold water, warm / hot water would heat up the gelatin and potentially ruin the print or worse case turn it back into a liquid. When in the tray of cold water, I'd gently agitated it by gently tipping each corner of the tray to just get the water moving over the print to wash it thoroughly. I would know it's done by picking it up and seeing the colour of the water that would drip off the mirror. If it was still blue / yellow, i would keep it in the water bath, but if it ran clear, I knew it was done and ready to be dried.
To dry the prints, it was the same as before, I would put them in the cupboard with paper towels under them, but instead of being flat on their back, I would prop them up allowing the watter to run off them.
That's the full process! If I was unhappy with a print due to too many blemishes or if something went wrong it was very easy to start over, i would just run it under the hot tap and very gently scrub it with the green side of the sponge and it was ready to start all over again.
I didn't mean to add a poll and I can't seem to remove it without deleting the full post please ignore this
Here is where I'll be making more of an effort to post my end of year work and my process. Above is a first attempt I made of printing on a mirror but I'll actually most my thinking of the project and the process of getting to this stage and how I ideally hope to progress with my thinking in the hopes that the end products get more refined!
Digital Communication in the Creative Media Industry
With the knowledge and technology today communication digitally is a lot easier than it used to be. There are a lot more ways online to communicate efficiently such as social media, emailing and commenting and sharing. This contrasts with the past ways where speaking to people and sending letters is was some of the few of the ways to communicate.
One of the ways people communicate is through technology is emails. Emails are probably one of the best to communicate to someone directly without talking to them face to face. Emails can be sent from either a Pc or nowadays from mobile phones. Personally I only use Emails for contacting people/school/jobs but on a professional level. Whereas I would use Texting/Social media on a social level.
Another way people can communicate is through social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. These sites make it possible to contact someone directly or to a general group of people. Talking to someone directly would involve direct messaging them. This is used on all of the social media sites that lets you choose a person(s). to message directly, but social media also allows you to communicate with a group as well using posts in order to send a message to everybody or people specifically if they're tagged. Social media helps to get a publics view on something that is being created or already created this could be essential for businesses in order to know what to create.
Video calling is also a way of communicating digitally. Using sites such as Skype is basally having a face to face meeting/conversation with someone through a computer. In a creative media field using video chat will enable you to know if the person you are calling is able to see what they need to see instead of sending it in an email and it possibly getting lost. Video calls also enables you to see the person that you are talking to allowing you to see facial expressions and also hear tone of voice which could be essential if it is an interview.
