TRACES

LOUISE WISEMAN

Ossuary Louise Wiseman

Ossuary
Cyanotype

© LOUISE WISEMAN

Cyanotype is a quick, simple yet very addictive method of cameraless photography. It uses the sun (or UV light) to expose images onto photosensitised paper, where they are developed and fixed using only water. The resulting images are in distinctive shades of blue.

Originally used in the 19th Century to create botanical photograms (where plants and other items are placed directly onto the paper), cyanotype is also used with negatives to create photographic images. “Wet cyanotype”, meanwhile, adds water and other natural substances into the process to give more abstract, experimental effects in sometimes surprising colours.

These images by Louise Wiseman include all the above methods. They are traces of the sun, of nature, of time, and of fleeting and lucky combinations of all three.